Mayor Lurie to Trump: We'll Deliver Your Vision, No Need for Troops
Attribution: "Daniel Lurie Headshot" by Hayden Blaz/ Cropped from original; “Donald Trump” by Gage Skidmore / Cropped from original. Used under CC BY 4.0.
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We learned one thing very clearly last week: far from resisting Trump, San Francisco’s mayor is operating from the same playbook. Trump’s war on the poor is consistent with Lurie’s own agenda, and Lurie is all too happy to carry out Trumpian policies here in San Francisco.
Of course we’re all relieved that Trump delayed his planned military invasion of our city. He offered two reasons for his decision. First, two billionaire friends -- one of whom initially requested the invasion -- asked him to hold off. Second, Trump said the mayor was “doing a good job” and “making substantial progress,” so he would give Lurie a chance to “turn it around” and “remove the criminals.”
It’s disturbing, but hardly surprising: Mayor Lurie and the majority of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors have already been implementing Trump’s vision for homelessness policy, abandoning evidence-based policies like housing first, harm reduction, and community-led programs, in favor of mushrooming police budgets, homeless sweeps, and criminal crackdowns on addiction. These are the strategies that have delighted billionaires, including Trump.
Two weeks ago, Trump accelerated plans for a military invasion of San Francisco because two billionaires – Elon Musk and Marc Benioff – said he should. Benioff told the NY Times Trump should send in the National Guard to help reduce crime in the city. “We don’t have enough cops, so if they can be cops, I’m all for it,” Benioff said. Texas resident, drug user and purveyor of Nazi salutes, Elon Musk chimed in to urge federal intervention to deal with crime in San Francisco, saying it was “the only solution at this point.” Musk described downtown San Francisco as a “drug zombie apocalypse.”
Lurie – along with local billionaires – assured Trump that San Francisco is already cracking down on crime. Lurie “asked very nicely” (according to Trump) that Trump “give him a chance to turn San Francisco around.” Trump apparently agreed, posting on his social media site that he’d hold off sending troops to San Francisco, noting that Lurie is “making substantial progress.” But progress toward what? Toward locking up the poor, criminalizing addiction, and conducting ever-more-aggressive homeless sweeps.
Now with pressure to “turn it around” so the feds don’t step in, Mayor Lurie will continue to ratchet up his criminal enforcement efforts against the poor. It’s a political win-win for Lurie: he gets credit for keeping Trump troops at bay while using the threat of federal forces to justify ramping up harsher sweeps and arrests.
And it’s not just that the Mayor shares a vision for the war on the poor, they also share a vision of using law enforcement to crush dissent. We know Trump’s goal – he’s been very clear: siccing ICE on immigrant communities and stomping out progressives or people who are anti-fascist. Even after all we’ve seen, Lurie just last week still emphasized that he would “welcome continued partnerships with the FBI, DEA, ATF, and U.S. Attorney.” While Lurie’s tone may be softer than Trump's, his policies have made it clear that he won't stand in the way of increased militarization, surveillance, and crushing of dissent in San Francisco.
For the past few years, we’ve seen our city welcome military-grade equipment for law enforcement, drones, mass surveillance networks, and felony charges for peaceful protestors. But when ICE agents drove an SUV into a crowd, striking a protester, there was silence from the Mayor, District Attorney, and most city supervisors. The message? Submit to authority, or else.
There is a dangerous double standard at play. If you dissent, you’re punished. If you uphold the system through violent crackdowns, you’re protected. And we just saw it play out again. If Lurie didn’t continue Trump’s bidding for him by criminalizing the poor, he’d send in the troops. Lurie is more than happy to oblige. As he pointed out to Trump, it’s what he’s already doing.
We know this is about power. And the ultra-rich are consolidating it across party lines. The same tech billionaires who funded Trump’s inauguration are funding SF Democratic politicians. The same surveillance tools being used here are being used across the country to try to stop dissent.
The crackdown on protests, the militarized policing, the surrender to billionaires have been embraced by so-called “moderate” political leaders here. Authoritarianism doesn’t only grow from the right, it’s also nurtured in cities when leaders look away, or stay silent, and even use the talking points and tactics of the right wing on local affairs. This is how authoritarianism takes root and grows. Not with a bang, but with a shrug.
We owe it to our neighbors and future generations not to stay silent. We have a responsibility to fight Trump’s authoritarianism wherever it appears. We do this by showing up, organizing, speaking out, joining street actions, and embracing a vision of a world where people are truly free, everyone’s basic needs are met, and nobody is punished for standing up for their neighbors.
Follow Bay Resistance to get involved in local actions and join me in the Democratic Socialists of America, where we are helping to organize San Franciscans to stand strong.