California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom blasted President Donald Trump over his seemingly arbitrary threat to deploy the U.S. military to San Francisco. The president pointed to what he called out-of-control crime and described the city as a “mess,” but state and local leaders — vowing to “resist” his efforts — say his allegations are baseless.
The Guardian on Thursday characterized the president’s claims as “hyperbolic,” and reported that San Francisco “is on track to have the lowest number of homicides in more than 70 years, according to a recent San Francisco Chronicle analysis.”
“The president,” Newsom said to reporters at a press conference announcing state-sponsored $11 insulin, “his latest assertion that he was going to come to San Francisco — on what basis? He didn’t even claim — there’s no pretext anymore. Let’s disabuse ourselves that there has to be a pretext with Donald Trump, that there’s anything that would justify that.”
“There’s no existing protest in a federal building,” the governor explained. “There’s no operation that’s being impeded. I guess it’s just a ‘training ground’ for the President of the United States,” he said, invoking Trump’s earlier words suggesting how the military should look at American cities.
California Democratic State Senator Scott Wiener on Wednesday said, “Contrary to Trump’s lie, no ‘government officials’ here have requested federal occupation. We don’t need Trump’s authoritarian crackdown in our city. Bottom line: stay the h– out of San Francisco.”
Newsom called Trump’s threat to militarize San Francisco “grossly illegal” and “immoral.”
State Attorney General Rob Bonta threatened to take the Trump administration to court if the President sends the National Guard to San Francisco.
“It’s rather delusional,” Newsom said of Trump’s threat.
“And increasingly, this president appears unhinged, unmoored by reality and facts, seems listless,” he charged. “He seems, dare I say, in decline — cognitively — and, dare I say, forgive me? Perhaps unfair, physically.”
“These are just rantings of someone that needs an intervention,” Newsom added. “Needs some help. Needs to be stabilized, dare I say?”