US President Donald Trump speaks to the press after disembarking from Air Force One upon arrival at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, Oct. 17, 2025, as he travels to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend.
President Donald Trump is stepping up his calls to deploy the National Guard to San Francisco at the very moment that the city is undergoing a post-pandemic resurgence, propelled by artificial intelligence.
Crime rates are down 30% from 2024, homicide levels hit their lowest levels in 70 years and car break-ins haven't been this low in 22 years. Meanwhile, event bookings and tourism are on the rise, residential real estate is becoming more scarce and the office market is heating up.
Business momentum in the city is largely built on the AI boom.
New data from CBRE show venture capital funding in 2025 is expected to surpass the record high of $276 billion hit in 2021. The bulk of that investment has been in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, where 80% of AI venture funding through the third quarter has been targeted to the tune of $115 billion.
By the end of the September, the San Francisco Bay Area was already 35% above its previous annual investment peak, according to CBRE's VC Funding analysis.
"San Franciscans are feeling positive about the direction of our city once again," Daniel Lurie, the city's Democratic mayor said in a statement last week released by Governor Gavin Newsom's office. "And we are going to continue working every single day to build on this progress and keep our city safe 365 days a year."
The statement was meant to tout the successful efforts of local law enforcement ahead of Salesforce's annual Dreamforce conference last week. The issue became particularly controversial after Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told the New York Times that he'd support Trump's call for federal troops to be sent to San Francisco. His sentiments were publicly supported by Elon Musk and David Sacks, high-profile techies with close ties to the Trump Administration.
On Friday, facing mounting criticism, Benioff backtracked, posting on X that, "Having listened closely to my fellow San Franciscans and our local officials, and after the largest and safest Dreamforce in our history, I do not believe the National Guard is needed to address safety in San Francisco."