President Donald Trump offered an unusual public nod to San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie during a Cabinet meeting Thursday, calling the Democrat someone who is "trying very hard" to rescue a city Trump said was once "one of the greatest cities in the world" but now has "a lot of crime." The remarks, reported by Fox News Digital, came as the meeting pivoted from the war in Iran to a broader discussion of Democrat-run cities, illegal immigration, and crime.
The moment was notable less for what it said about Lurie than for what it said about the mess San Francisco made of itself, and the political earthquake that finally started cleaning it up.
Trump's comments came after Secretary of War Pete Hegseth spoke during the same meeting. The president pivoted to the subject of cities struggling under progressive governance and singled out San Francisco by name.
Trump told the room:
"I know they have a mayor who's trying very hard. He's a Democrat, but he's trying very hard."
He went further, framing the federal government's role as one that local leaders simply cannot fill on their own. Trump said:
"But we can do it much more effectively, because he can't do what we do. He can't take people out from the city and bring them back to the country from where they came, where they were in prisons."
The president referenced drug dealers and murderers, citing a figure of "11,888 murders", a number whose precise context was not clarified in the meeting, and drew a sharp line between what a city mayor can accomplish and what only the federal government has the authority to do.
Trump also revealed he had spoken directly with Lurie. The timeline of that conversation was not specified, but Trump described the exchange plainly:
"He just wants to have a chance. And I said, 'We'll give you a chance, but we can solve it very quickly.'"
For years, San Francisco served as a national symbol of what happens when progressive ideology meets city governance without guardrails. Open drug markets. Rampant homelessness. Property crime so routine that retailers boarded up storefronts and left. Lenient policies on crime, drugs, and homelessness became the city's defining political exports.
Then voters pushed back. In 2024, Lurie defeated incumbent Democrat London Breed, signaling a shift away from the city's progressive drift. Fox News Digital described the election as part of a broader movement in which moderates reclaimed leadership from the progressive faction that had dominated San Francisco politics.
That shift did not happen by accident. A group called Neighbors for a Better San Francisco raised $10 million to pour into local elections, aiming to stop progressives from winning re-election and, as a Politico report published last month described it, knocking the city "off its more centrist course." The effort reflected a growing frustration among residents and business owners who had watched their city deteriorate under policies that prioritized ideology over public safety.
But the fight is far from settled. Fox News Digital noted that moderate Democrats in San Francisco still fear local left-wing politicians could undo the work done over the past four years. The progressive infrastructure in the city remains intact. The question is whether the current moderate hold can survive the next election cycle, or whether San Francisco slides back.
Trump's willingness to publicly praise a Democratic mayor, while simultaneously making clear that only federal enforcement can address the deepest problems, fits a broader pattern. The president has consistently used public forums to back officials he views as aligned with his priorities, regardless of party label, while drawing sharp contrasts with those who obstruct enforcement. He has done the same within his own administration, publicly backing Kristi Noem while citing historic crime numbers and a closed border, and shutting down resignation rumors about Tulsi Gabbard by praising her work.
The Lurie remarks carry a different weight. Praising a Democrat in front of the full Cabinet sends a message: cooperation on crime and immigration enforcement is welcome, and the White House will acknowledge it publicly. It also puts pressure on other Democratic mayors who have refused to work with federal authorities on illegal immigration.
Trump's comments Thursday underscored a point he has made repeatedly: local leaders lack the tools to remove criminal illegal immigrants from their cities. Only the federal government can deport foreign nationals who entered the country unlawfully, particularly those with violent criminal records.
The president put it bluntly during the meeting:
"They were allowed to go in prisons. There were drug dealers, the highest level of drug dealers. Murderers, 11,888 murders. We do things that they can't do."
That framing matters. It positions the federal government not as an adversary of local governance but as the only entity capable of handling the most dangerous consequences of failed border policy. A mayor, even a willing one, cannot issue deportation orders. He cannot coordinate with foreign governments to repatriate convicted criminals. He cannot operate ICE detention facilities.
Trump has moved to build out the administrative infrastructure to act on those priorities. He recently named JD Vance to chair a new fraud task force, part of a broader push to centralize enforcement and accountability within the executive branch. The approach reflects a White House that views direct federal action, not waiting for local politicians to come around, as the faster path to results.
Trump's assessment of San Francisco was not all praise. He described the city as one that "was a great city" and "could quickly become a great city again", a formulation that makes clear he does not consider the turnaround complete.
He also noted that progress has been slow:
"But, you know, they're going very slowly. I tell my friends, they are very substantial people, they're in a certain business where people have made a lot of money; I hope that lasts, but they have tremendous, tremendous potential."
The "going very slowly" line is the sharpest part. It acknowledges Lurie's effort while flagging the reality that San Francisco's problems, built over years of progressive mismanagement, will not vanish because one election went the right way. The city's tech wealth, its natural beauty, its port and its history all remain. But so do the open-air drug markets, the property crime, and the illegal immigrant population that local authorities alone cannot remove.
The political dynamics inside San Francisco remain volatile. The moderate coalition that elected Lurie and funded groups like Neighbors for a Better San Francisco faces a progressive movement that has not conceded defeat. As the recent intra-party clashes on Capitol Hill have shown, winning one round does not guarantee holding the ground.
Trump's Thursday remarks were not a blanket endorsement of Daniel Lurie or the Democratic Party. They were a recognition that one Democrat, in one city, appears willing to move in the right direction, and an implicit challenge to every other big-city mayor who has refused to do the same.
The president made the stakes plain. San Francisco can cooperate with federal enforcement and accelerate its recovery. Or it can go slowly, fight the White House, and watch the problems fester. The offer is on the table. The question is whether the city's political class has the spine to take it, and keep taking it when the progressive base starts pushing back.
Good intentions from a new mayor are a start. But San Francisco didn't fall apart because it lacked good intentions. It fell apart because the people in charge chose ideology over order, and the residents paid the price.
