Donald Trump threatens to send National Guard troops to San Francisco as city’s fentanyl crisis spirals
Donald Trump threatens to send National Guard troops to San Francisco as city’s fentanyl crisis spirals
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Donald Trump threatens to send National Guard troops to San Francisco as city’s fentanyl crisis spirals

Brielle Burns 🕒︎ 2025-10-20

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Donald Trump threatens to send National Guard troops to San Francisco as city’s fentanyl crisis spirals

Speaking to Fox News, the US President threatened to send National Guard troops to the Democratic city of San Francisco, as he has done in Los Angeles, Washington, and Memphis, and attempted to do in Chicago and Portland. “We’re going to go to San Francisco,” he said in the interview, which aired on Sunday, US time. “The difference is, I think they want us in San Francisco.” Mr Trump said San Francisco – America’s tech capital – was once “truly one of the great cities of the world”. “And then 15 years ago, it went wrong, it went woke.” “We’re going to go to San Francisco and we’re going to make it great … it will be great again.” The President has repeatedly exaggerated the extent of crime and unrest in US cities to justify ordering deployments, which have largely been opposed by local Democratic leaders. In August, he said he would send the National Guard to San Francisco to “clean up” the city, blaming Democrats for “destroying” it. Responding to the latest threat, Democratic California State Senator Scott Wiener argued National Guards were not needed and urged Mr Trump to keep “San Francisco out of your damn mouth”. “San Franciscan here,” he wrote on X. “We don’t want you here. We don’t want your invading army or ski mask secret police. And while we’re add it, keep San Francisco out of your damn mouth.” Tech entrepreneur and podcast host Jason Calacanis slammed the Senator’s comments. “Translation: we want fentanyl dealers causing 3,000 overdoses a year, unsafe subways and home invasions,” he wrote, responding to Mr Wiener’s post. “These socialist democrats are idiots … just say ‘thanks for the help, please put the national guard on these 17 corners and 12 BART stations — what took you so long!’” Trump set a trap, dips**** like @Scott_Wiener fall for it.” His All-In podcast co-host and Mr Trump’s AI and Crypto Czar, David Sacks, has also been vocal over his support for National Guard deployment, saying a “targeted operation could clean up San Francisco very quickly”. The debate comes after Marc Benioff, the boss of San Francisco-based tech giant Salesforce expressed support for National Guard deployment in the city before later retracting his statement. “We don’t have enough cops, so if they can be cops, I’m all for it,” he told the New York Times earlier this month. Apologising for his statement, he wrote on X last week: “Having listened closely to my fellow San Franciscans … I do not believe the National Guard is needed to address safety in San Francisco.” “It’s my firm belief that our city makes the most progress when we all work together in a spirit of partnership.” San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has also called for her city to “be allowed to continue the progress that we are making.” “There is no question that when we need the addition of state or federal resources, that we have no problem seeking the assistance that we need. But we have this issue under control,” she said last week. San Francisco’s drug crisis San Francisco is facing a massive public health crisis, with 497 drug overdose deaths reported so far in 2025, according to the Medical Examiner’s report. Analysis by The San Francisco Chronicle last month found overdose deaths in the city dropped in 2024 after reaching a record high the previous year. However, the publication reported fatal overdoses are still much more common than they were before the pandemic.” The epidemic has primarily been fuelled by fentanyl – a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times more potent than heroin – which has so far contributed to 28 deaths this year. In 2021, then-Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in the notorious Tenderloin neighbourhood, but the crisis has continued to spread across the city. High overdose rates have since become talking points for Mr Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk, who once owned a mansion in the Bay Area. Mr Musk characterised the city “a disaster” and a “once beautiful and thriving, now a derelict zombie apocalypse” in May 2023 before ultimately moving SpaceX and X’s headquarters from San Francisco to Austin in 2024 despite earlier promising that he would stay in the city. He later explained he did so because he had “had enough of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building”. Earlier this month, alarming footage from citizen journalist JJ Smith, who regularly documents public instances of drug use, revealed just how all-consuming the problem has become in some parts of the city. In one video, filmed shortly before 7am local time on October 8, roughly a dozen people could be seen almost frozen on the sidewalk in Downtown San Francisco, some with their pants around their ankles, unable to talk, seemingly under the influence of drugs. At one point, the person filming the video asks, “What y’all getting up? Fentanyl?” as a man desperately scrapes a powder off the footpath. Outside of drug use, San Francisco is also grappling with a homeless crisis. According to Point-in-Time, 8,323 people were homeless in the city in January of 2024 – a seven per cent increase from 2022. Another person claims a dealer has done a “switcheroo” while holding a glass pipe. “What’s it supposed to be? The man filming asks. “Fentanyl and crystal”, the man responds. “You’re mixing both, wow, that’s powerful,” responds the stunned bystander behind the camera. As the video goes on, the filmer probes where some of the drug users are from. None are local, one is from Washington, and another is from the nearby city of Sacramento. Asked why they are in San Francisco, they respond that there is more opportunity, and “cheaper dope”. The videographer known by the alias “JJ Smith” has drawn both criticism and praise for his provocative, almost daily, X videos documenting homelessness and drug issues in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighbourhood. Critics argue that he exploits vulnerable people, while others, including some who work directly with the city’s disadvantaged, consider him a community hero. Trump’s crackdown on crime Since returning to the White House in January, Mr Trump has ordered National Guard troops to Los Angeles, Washington and Memphis to combat crime and help protect immigration agents. Planned deployments to Chicago and Portland, Oregon have so far been blocked in US courts. The first deployment to Los Angeles, in June, came after sometimes unruly protests over widespread immigration raids that critics said appeared to target people based largely on their race or the language they were speaking. On Saturday, US time, huge crowds took to the streets in all 50 US states “No Kings” protests to vent anger over Mr Trump’s hardline policies, including his deployment of the National Guard. Organisers said seven million people marched in protests spanning New York to Los Angeles, with demonstrations popping up in small cities across the US heartland and even near Mr Trump’s home in Florida. Protesters called for democracy to be protected, while others demanded that the country abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency at the centre of Mr Trump’s anti-immigrant crackdown. Those in Chicago yelled “hands off” opposing military intervention in Chicago. While animated, the protests were largely peaceful. – With Jack Evans and AFP

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