The first-term Democratic mayor and his team relied on “power mapping,” tapping business leaders with connections to Trump and Vice President JD Vance, a former venture capitalist who previously worked in San Francisco, according to sources familiar with the effort.
Lurie’s team reached out to heavyweights such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang, and Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, a fixture in San Francisco politics, urging them to vouch for the mayor’s public safety push.
Ron Conway, known as the “godfather of Silicon Valley,” also purportedly made calls to high-ranking Republicans whom he believed could persuade Trump to stand down.
The goal was to remain calm, persuasive, and, at the time, private.
Lurie didn’t want to fan the flames like California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), or Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who routinely engage in public battles with the administration. Newsom blasted over social media that he was ready to sue the Trump administration if they set foot in San Francisco. Other piled on, but Lurie held back.
The mayor’s efforts paid off, earning him a Wednesday night telephone call with Trump.
“The president told me clearly that he was calling off any plans for a federal deployment in San Francisco,” Lurie said in a statement released a few minutes before Trump confirmed the change of plans in a Truth Social post. “Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem reaffirmed that direction in our conversation this morning.”
Trump said Lurie told him the city was making “substantial progress” on combating crime and asked for “a chance” to handle the issue locally.
“I told him I think he is making a mistake, because we can do it much faster, and remove the criminals that the Law does not permit him to remove,” Trump added. “I told him, ‘It’s an easier process if we do it, faster, stronger, and safer but, let’s see how you do?’ The people of San Francisco have come together on fighting Crime, especially since we began to take charge of that very nasty subject. Great people like Jensen Huang, Marc Benioff, and others have called saying that the future of San Francisco is great. They want to give it a ‘shot.’ Therefore, we will not surge San Francisco on Saturday. Stay tuned!”
Political strategist Kaivan Shroff told the Washington Examiner that Lurie successfully capitalized on his influence.
“I think one of the critiques of Lurie, at least from progressives, may have played as a strength here in that he does have those relationships with business leaders and major CEOs in the city, those voices with Trump’s ear who also weighed in and asked for this outcome,” he said.
Lurie, billionaire heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, has also taken heat from activists and others in the Democratic Party for not being more public in his pushback against Trump. Lurie has stayed quiet on most of Trump’s controversial policies and rarely says the president’s name in public. He only spoke up when the administration threatened to come into the city.
“Using a carrot instead of a stick paid off for the Mayor,” California-based strategist Steven Maviglio told the Washington Examiner. “It’s no secret that Trump responds to flattering and being pressed by his friends, and Lurie figured that out. It’s the complete opposite from the Newsom approach, which probably figured into the equation.”
After Trump told Fox News he was prepared to send troops to San Francisco, Lurie remained “laser focused” on the city. He didn’t criticize the president but, in a series of video messages, said he would protect the city’s large immigrant population and urged residents to protest peacefully.
“While we cannot control the federal government, here in San Francisco, we define who we are,” he said.
Edward Escobar, the founder of the Coalition for Community Engagement and Citizens Unite movements in California, told the Washington Examiner that more lawmakers should take a page out of Lurie’s handbook. He specifically called out Democratic Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, claiming she “continues to posture politically — playing ignorant to the out-of-control crime wave erupting in her own backyard.”
“By contrast, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has adopted a diplomatic and pragmatic tone that is conducive to generating more effective and beneficial results for the public,” he said. “He has chosen wisely to put San Francisco first — prioritizing safety and stability — rather than succumbing to the political pressures of ultra-progressive ideologues in his own backyard. His administration’s coordinated response to federal engagement and commitment to protecting civil liberties while enhancing public safety reflects a model of leadership that others should follow.”
SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR SAYS CITY HAS CRIME UNDER CONTROL
But political strategist Adin Lenchner of Carroll Street Campaigns cautioned against giving Lurie too much credit.
“Let’s be real: Daniel Lurie is savvy enough to know how to pull the right levers to get what he wants — that’s politics,” he told the Washington Examiner. “But Trump’s willingness to be influenced isn’t a testament to leadership; it’s a flashing red sign of weakness. This is a president teetering on the edge of authoritarianism, desperate to distract from skyrocketing costs, broken promises, and his cozy relationship with a convicted sex offender. Of course he’d rather talk about sending troops into American cities than talk about the mess he’s made of the country.”
