The US president credits billionaire tech entrepreneurs with helping to change his mind on the long-threatened National Guard deployment.
For weeks, President Donald Trump had been threatening to deploy members of the United States military to San Francisco, California.
But on Thursday, Trump made a sudden about-face, announcing he would not push forward with a “surge” of troops to the Democratic stronghold – at least, for now.
“The Federal Government was preparing to ‘surge’ San Francisco, California, on Saturday, but friends of mine who live in the area called last night to ask me not to go forward with the surge,” Trump wrote on his online platform, Truth Social.
The Republican leader credited Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Salesforce cofounder Marc Benioff, two titans of the tech industry, with helping to convince him to reverse course.
Trump added that he had also spoken with San Francisco’s mayor, centrist Democrat Daniel Lurie. But in relaying their call, the president hinted that Thursday’s decision may not be his final word on the matter.
“He asked, very nicely, that I give
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