On Wednesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom threatened to sue the Trump administration if National Guard troops are deployed to San Francisco.
“Send troops to San Francisco and we will sue you, @realDonaldTrump,” Newsom wrote on X.
Later, at a news conference, the likely 2028 Democratic presidential contender added, “We’re going to be fierce, we’re going to be focused in terms of our response. Quite literally, this is the lawsuit that I will file within a nanosecond of any effort to send the military to one of America’s great cities, San Francisco.”
The governor said California officials “will push back with clarity and conviction,” adding that they will “continue to win in court.”
Newsom’s threat follows President Donald Trump’s announcement during an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that the National Guard will next be deployed to San Francisco. The city joins Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., where Guard units have already been sent to help curb rising crime, assist with federal immigration enforcement, and respond to ongoing protests, Fox News reported.
“We’re going to go to San Francisco,” Trump said on Sunday. “The difference is, I think they want us in San Francisco. San Francisco was truly one of the great cities of the world, and then 15 years ago, it went wrong. It went woke.”
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the administration is also sending 100 federal agents from Customs and Border Protection and Coast Guard Base Alameda to San Francisco.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom responded Tuesday by vowing to take the federal government to court if it proceeds with deploying National Guard troops to the city.
“We’re a nation of laws and accountability — not a nation that turns a blind eye to abuse of power,” he said in a statement. “Donald Trump, himself a convicted felon who pardoned felons convicted of assaulting federal law enforcement officers, is misleading the public with his false narrative that America, and especially California, is some lawless wasteland.”
“But California is proving him wrong — in the courts and on the facts,” the governor continued. “We don’t bow to kings, and we’re standing up to this wannabe tyrant. The notion that the federal government can deploy troops into our cities with no justification grounded in reality, no oversight, no accountability, no respect for state sovereignty — it’s a direct assault on the rule of law. We’re drawing a line: California will always defend the Constitution, our people, and our values from authoritarian overreach.”
Newsom has also noted San Francisco’s drop in homicides, while the city’s mayor, Democrat Daniel Lurie, affirmed that the city is safe.
“We got this in San Francisco,” the mayor told The Associated Press a week ago.
The administration is also sending 100 federal agents from Customs and Border Protection and Coast Guard Base Alameda to San Francisco.
Lurie responded Tuesday by vowing to take the federal government to court if it proceeds with deploying National Guard troops to the city.
“The National Guard does not have the authority to arrest drug dealers — and sending them to San Francisco will do nothing to get fentanyl off the streets or make our city safer,” he told The Associated Press.
California officials previously sued the administration over the summer after it deployed National Guard and Marine units to Los Angeles to restore order during anti-ICE protests.
“California has seen enough. President Trump and Stephen Miller’s authoritarian playbook is coming for another of our cities, and violence and vandalism are exactly what they’re looking for to invoke chaos. Help keep yourself and your communities safe. Remain peaceful,” Newsom wrote Wednesday on X.
An appeals court for the 9th Circuit overturned a lower federal court in June and allowed Trump to retain control of Guard troops he deployed to protect federal property in Los Angeles.