Newsom threatens lawsuit if Trump sends National Guard to San Francisco

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday threatened to sue the Trump administration if National Guard troops are sent to San Francisco.

Newsom wrote to X: “Send troops to San Francisco and we’ll sue you @realDonaldTrump.”

“We’re going to be violent, we’re going to be focused on our response. This is literally the case that I would file in a nanosecond of any effort to send the military into San Francisco, one of the greatest cities in America,” he said as he brought up a document at a news conference.

The governor said California officials “will push back with clarity and conviction” and “continue to win in court.”

TRUMP’S UPCOMING PRESSURE ON SAN FRANCISCO SAVED A REACTION FROM MAYOR NEWSOM

This comes after President Donald Trump told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that the National Guard would head to San Francisco next after being deployed to several US cities including Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington D.C. to help reduce crime, support federal immigration enforcement and respond to protests.

“We’re going to go to San Francisco,” Trump said Sunday. “The difference is, I think they want us in San Francisco. San Francisco was truly one of the greatest cities in the world, and 15 years ago everything went wrong. It woke up.”

The administration is also sending 100 agents from Customs and Border Protection and Coast Guard Base Alameda to San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Newsom also vowed Tuesday to challenge the federal government in court if California sends troops to San Francisco.

NEWSOM SUED THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OVER THE ORDER TO DEPLOY THE CALIFORNIA NATIONAL GUARD TO OREGON.

California Governor Gavin Newsom and President Donald Trump shake hands on January 24, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

“We are a nation of laws and responsibility; we are not a nation that tolerates abuse of power,” he said in a statement. “Donald Trump, himself a convicted felon who pardons criminals convicted of assaulting federal law enforcement, is misleading the public with his false narrative that America, and California in particular, is a lawless wasteland.”

“But California is proving him wrong in the courts and on the facts,” the governor continued. “We do not bow to kings, and we stand against this wannabe tyrant. The idea that the federal government can deploy troops into our cities without any factual justification, without oversight, without accountability, without respect for state sovereignty is a direct attack on the rule of law. We draw a line: California will always defend the Constitution, our people, and our values ​​against authoritarian excesses.”

Newsom praised San Francisco’s decline in homicides, and the city’s mayor, Democrat Daniel Lurie, confirmed the city was safe.

“We got this in San Francisco,” the mayor told The Associated Press last week.

President Donald Trump speaks with law enforcement members and National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C., on August 21, 2025 (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)

Lurie said Monday that San Francisco would welcome more federal aid against drug dealers and drug markets but opposed deploying the National Guard.

“The National Guard has no authority to arrest drug dealers, and sending them to San Francisco will do nothing to remove fentanyl from the streets or make our city safer,” he told The Associated Press.

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California officials filed a lawsuit over the summer against the administration, which sent the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles to seize control of anti-ICE protests.

“California has seen enough. President Trump and Stephen Miller’s authoritarian playbook is coming to another of our cities, and violence and vandalism are exactly what they’re looking for to incite chaos. Help keep yourself and your communities safe. Stay peaceful,” Newsom wrote on X on Wednesday.