Trump canceled federal deployment to San Francisco after calls from Nvidia's Jensen Huang and Salesforce's Marc Benioff. Other cities—Chicago, Memphis, Portland—face ongoing operations. What changed? The cities without billionaire CEOs on speed dial.
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Trump canceled federal deployment to San Francisco after calls from Nvidia's Jensen Huang and Salesforce's Marc Benioff. Other cities—Chicago, Memphis, Portland—face ongoing operations. What changed? The cities without billionaire CEOs on speed dial.
President Trump canceled a planned federal law enforcement "surge" in San Francisco on Thursday after phone calls from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff—the same tech leaders who have spent months building ties to the administration on export licenses, tax policy, and tariffs. The reversal came one day before Border Patrol agents were set to arrive Saturday. Mayor Daniel Lurie confirmed that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told him the deployment was off. San Francisco joins a short list: the only major city where Trump announced deployment plans then pulled them before execution.
Trump has sent federal forces to Los Angeles, Chicago, Memphis, and Portland this year over local objections. San Francisco was next on the list until Wednesday night. The difference isn't crime data or local cooperation—it's who picked up the phone. Huang and Benioff both called Trump directly to say the city deserves "a shot," according to the president's Truth Social post. He named them specifically. Hours later, the operation was off.
This reveals the structure of influence under Trump's second term. Tech executives now function as a veto layer between federal enforcement and Democratic-run cities—when those cities host enough corporate headquarters and billionaire residents. Chicago has no equivalent power brokers. It still has federal troops. San Francisco has Huang and Benioff. It doesn't.
That's not diplomacy or coalition-building. It's transactional access converted to policy outcomes. The calculation is visible: Nvidia needs export waivers for China-bound chips, Salesforce wants favorable tax treatment, both companies benefit from federal AI contracts. Trump needs their public support and their campaign checks. A phone call becomes leverage when both sides have something the other wants immediately.
Benioff created this situation two weeks ago when he told the New York Times that San Francisco needed the National Guard and praised Trump's leadership. The comments came days before Salesforce's annual Dreamforce conference brought 45,000 people to the city. Backlash was swift. Employees protested internally. Venture capitalist Ron Conway resigned from Salesforce's philanthropic arm. Benioff walked back his statement and apologized. Then he picked up the phone again—this time to tell Trump the deployment wasn't necessary after all.
The sequence matters. Benioff generated the threat, absorbed the political cost, then resolved it. That cycle creates a specific kind of capital: the ability to cause and solve problems for local officials. Lurie now knows Benioff can summon or dismiss federal intervention. That's leverage money can't buy directly.
Huang operates differently but achieves the same result. He owns a $38 million home in Presidio Heights and Nvidia is considering office space in San Francisco's Mission Rock development. He's met with Trump repeatedly this year and secured a deal in August: the administration lifted export restrictions on Nvidia's H20 chips in exchange for a 15 percent revenue cut on China sales. Huang accompanied Trump on Middle East tours and a UK state visit. When he called Thursday to vouch for San Francisco, Trump listened.
Other cities don't have that access. Portland faced weeks of federal deployment despite objections from local officials. Memphis and Chicago are still dealing with ongoing operations. The pattern is clear: federal enforcement proceeds unless corporate interests with direct lines to Trump intervene. Geography doesn't determine deployment decisions. Corporate geography does.
Lurie cited crime statistics in his calls with Trump: crime down 30 percent citywide, violent crime at 1950s levels, car break-ins at 22-year lows, homicides on track for a 70-year low. Those numbers predate this week's drama. They didn't stop Trump from planning the deployment. Huang's and Benioff's phone calls did.
That reveals how Trump makes these calls. Relationships and business deals matter more than data. Lurie is a moderate Democrat who avoids attacking Trump by name—unlike Governor Gavin Newsom and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who fire back at him publicly. That strategy got Lurie access to the president. But it didn't change anything. The outcome shifted when tech CEOs with federal business on the line made the ask.
Three signals will clarify whether this was an exception or a template. First, whether Trump follows through on his threat that Lurie is "making a mistake" by not accepting federal help—or if that becomes background noise. Second, whether other cities with major corporate headquarters can replicate this outcome by activating their executive networks. Third, whether Huang and Benioff face any cost for reversing a presidential decision, or if this becomes standard practice for high-stakes cities.
For now, Trump framed the reversal as magnanimous flexibility: "They want to give it a 'shot.' Therefore, we will not surge San Francisco on Saturday. Stay tuned!" That phrasing preserves his option to restart deployment if the CEOs stop vouching for progress. It also signals to other mayors that federal enforcement isn't governed by law or local capacity—it's governed by who can get Trump on the phone and what they can offer in return.
San Francisco officials are treating this as a reprieve, not a resolution. Lurie said the city "remains prepared for any scenario." That's accurate. The structural vulnerability hasn't changed. Federal deployment still hinges on relationships between Trump and executives who have business before his administration. Cities without that corporate buffer are on their own.
Q: What deal did Jensen Huang negotiate with Trump earlier this year?
A: In August, the Trump administration lifted export restrictions on Nvidia's H20 chips for China in exchange for a 15 percent cut of those sales going to the U.S. government. Huang also accompanied Trump on Middle East tours and a UK state visit, building a relationship that gave him direct access to the president.
Q: How long have federal troops been deployed to other cities?
A: Trump sent federal forces to Los Angeles in June 2025. Chicago, Memphis, and Portland have ongoing operations that started in the months since. These deployments have sparked legal challenges over whether the president has authority to send troops into cities without local consent, but none have been called off.
Q: Why did Marc Benioff initially call for federal troops in San Francisco?
A: Benioff made his comments to the New York Times days before Salesforce's annual Dreamforce conference, which brought 45,000 people to the city. He said he supported Trump and thought the National Guard was needed for safety. After employee protests and Ron Conway's resignation from Salesforce's philanthropic arm, Benioff apologized and reversed his position.
Q: Who is Daniel Lurie and how did he become mayor?
A: Lurie is the heir to the Levi Strauss fortune and a moderate Democrat who took office in January 2025 as a first-term mayor. He ran on reducing crime and homelessness and has avoided publicly criticizing Trump by name—a different approach than Governor Gavin Newsom and Nancy Pelosi, who regularly fire back at the president.
Q: Can Trump restart the San Francisco deployment later?
A: Yes. Trump's statement said "we will not surge San Francisco on Saturday. Stay tuned!" which preserves his option to restart if he decides the city isn't making progress. He told Lurie directly that refusing federal help was "a mistake" and that federal forces could "do it much faster." The deployment is postponed, not canceled permanently.
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