Where will Trump help clean up next?
The Trump administration has set its sights on San Francisco as part of its crackdown on crime and illegal immigrants shielded by the city’s longstanding sanctuary laws.
The city of San Francisco will be added to a growing list of cities where the Trump administration is sending Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in an effort to get illegal immigrant criminals off the streets, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced during a press conference Monday in Sarasota, Florida.
“We continue to have targeted operations in many, many cities, but also very focused on those where challenges are still remaining, such as Portland, Chicago, we’re in Memphis as well, we’re going to San Francisco at the direction of the president as well,” Noem said.
“We’re going to continue to make sure we’re focused not just on those cities that we hear about on the news, but also in cities like Sarasota, that we make sure that law enforcement officers in every single community get the chance to continue to get these criminals off of their streets,” she added.
Over the summer of 2025, Donald Trump ordered the federalization of the California National Guard and the deployment of thousands of troops to Los Angeles in response to large-scale protests over immigration enforcement. Supporters of the deployment argue that it helped stabilize key federal facilities and deter further escalation and targeting of federal ICE officers by providing a visible security presence, thereby allowing continuing operations of federal agencies without disruption. At the same time, this dramatic move inflamed the long-standing rivalry between Trump and Gavin Newsom, Governor of California and a prominent 2028 presidential-hopeful. Newsom publicly condemned the action as an unauthorized federal override of state authority, framing himself as both a defender of civil liberties and a foil to Trump’s law-and-order style.
“San Francisco was truly one of the great cities of the world, and then 15 years ago it went wrong, it went woke,” Trump said during an interview with Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo Sunday.
“We’re going to San Francisco and we’re going to make it great,” said Trump.
California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom responded to Trump on X Sunday, saying “Nobody wants you here. You will ruin one of America’s greatest cities.”
