Trump was planning to send troops to San Francisco. Now he's not. Here's why | Joe Eskenazi

"The mayor of San Francisco said on Thursday that Donald Trump had simply called him no go-betweens or consigliere required and told him there would no longer be a deployment of federal agents or troops to the city. The president simply dialed Daniel Lurie up and talked at him. And, just like that, a daylong crisis and flood-the-zone news cycle across the Bay Area regarding the imminent deployment of border protection agents to the region was quelled."

"But the real story here is, per the president's summation on social media of his discussion with Lurie, that the commander-in-chief is overtly stating that he is basing a domestic military deployment upon what local friends of mine (the billionaire CEOs Jensen Huang of Nvidia and the local boy Marc Benioff of Salesforce) lobbied him to do. Trump also noted that Lurie asked him very nicely not to establish a military beachhead in San Francisco."

"All for the good. But what if Huang and Benioff had been in the mood for a military parade and called for sending in the troops? What if Lurie had been less polite? If things had gone even slightly differently, it stands to reason that federal immigration agents and/or armed troops could be rolling through the city by now. There are only so many turns of phrase you can employ: this is just a profoundly fucked-up way to lead a country."

President Trump called San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie and said he would not send federal agents or troops to the city, ending a daylong crisis about an imminent deployment. Oakland mayor Barbara Lee said the president did not call her, and other Bay Area leaders noted there was no explicit pledge to spare the rest of the region. The president stated that billionaire CEOs Jensen Huang and Marc Benioff lobbied him, indicating private influence over the deployment decision. Lurie reportedly asked not to establish a "military beachhead" in San Francisco. The episode raises concerns that personalized, capricious decision-making and billionaire influence could determine domestic military actions.

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