Donald Trump vs. San Francisco: The fight Daniel Lurie doesn’t want

Daniel Lurie is clearly not itching for a fight.

In the face of a deadly fentanyl epidemic, rampant homelessness, and a grim budget deficit, San Francisco’s new mayor has repeatedly said he intends to focus on the city’s crises and not let his administration be sidetracked by President Donald Trump. One day into the sequel of Making America Great Again, Lurie stuck to that pledge. 

After Trump signed 200-plus executive orders in his first hours in office, including plans to overturn birthright citizenship and eliminate federal recognition of transgender people, the mayor said nary a word about them.

Instead, Lurie tweeted out parts of his MLK Day speech. In another social media post, he offered condolences over the death of famed chef Charles Phan. He then posted a video telling people not to fret over the shuttering of Bloomingdale’s, one of the few remaining upscale department stores downtown.

The decision to ignore Trump’s actions offered the first glimpse into how Lurie intends to deal with a president hell-bent on targeting immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community, two of San Francisco’s core constituencies. 

Sources in and around City Hall were disappointed by the mayor’s silence on the executive orders. Political insiders say this reflects a calculation about Lurie’s own electoral interests, as well as what he’s learned from watching other politicians engage with, and be distracted by, Trump’s serial provocations. But it also leaves representatives of some of the city’s key Democratic constituencies feeling uneasy and let down.

Whether it’s a matter of priorities, believing the fallacy that Trump will respect the autonomy of a better-governed San Francisco, or simply feeling uncomfortable tussling with Trump in public, Lurie chose to cede the floor Tuesday to City Attorney David Chiu, who joined almost two dozen states in suing the federal government on the birthright citizenship issue. 

“As the city attorney, I feel an enormous sense of responsibility to protect our city,” Chiu told The Standard. “There are so many communities that are fearful at this time based on what he has threatened or put in motion. This isn’t a fight any of us relish, but when Trump comes after our communities, we’ll do whatever we’re able to to defend them.”

Few, if any, cities were more active in leading the resistance to Trump’s first term as president than San Francisco. Elected officials routinely took aim at the Republican demagogue with a slew of resolutions and scathing statements, while the city attorney’s office filed 11 lawsuits, 35 regulatory rulemaking comments, and 37 amicus briefs. Trump’s second stint in the White House could be even more contentious.

In the months leading up to Trump’s inauguration, Chiu’s office began coaching departments on sanctuary city policies with an eye toward the new president challenging birthright citizenship and potentially launching deportation raids. Chiu brought back Mollie Lee — a former deputy city attorney, senior attorney for the ACLU, and senior counsel to Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign — as chief of strategic advocacy to oversee all Trump legal challenges.

Sources said Lurie was briefed on the city’s lawsuit and offered support, his public silence notwithstanding. The mayor’s office declined to comment Tuesday beyond noting that Lurie has expressed concerns about Trump and prefers to focus on city services and the local economy.

Many in the city’s LGBTQ+ community went into red-alert mode Tuesday as elected officials like state Sen. Scott Wiener issued statements challenging the Trump administration’s rejection of transgender rights. “It’s hard to overstate how radical this is: A government dictate[s] that a class of people simply doesn’t exist,” Wiener wrote.

Honey Mahogany, director of the city’s Office of Transgender Initiatives, said she has contacted every local transgender organization and received a message of support Tuesday from Kunal Modi, a policy chief in Lurie’s office. While she expects to soon meet with Lurie, Mahogany said the transgender community is waiting for answers on how a federal order might affect residents.

“Folks are scared and unsure how all of this is going to affect them,” Mahogany said. “We’ve been really lucky to be making consistent progress over the last couple of decades, and this, obviously, seems like it’s going to be a large step back.”

On the campaign trail, Lurie repeatedly said he would stand up for the rights of all residents, but the enormity of Trump’s executive orders invites the question: What would compel the mayor to directly challenge the president? 

Jeff Cretan, who was communications director for London Breed, said dealing with Trump was a challenge during the former mayor’s first years in office. The president feeds off attention, he said — whether it’s positive or negative.

“Breed’s concern with Trump was taking on the issues but not giving him air time for every wild one-off comment he made,” Cretan said.

In his first opportunity to reassure anxious residents about how the city will deal with a second Trump administration, Lurie deferred to Chiu, Assessor-Recorder Joaquín Torres, and officials in the sheriff’s office — all of whom spent time Tuesday reiterating the legality of San Francisco’s role as a sanctuary city while directing people to the Rapid Response Network for immigrant communities.

“This administration at the federal level is seeking to divide us and instill fear in us where it can, and that’s bait that we’re not going to take,” Torres said. “We want our communities going to work and going to school and knowing their rights.”

Many political insiders say they want Lurie to succeed and are giving him the benefit of the doubt in his early days, as he has shown an earnest approach to meeting with allies and opposing camps. Francisco Ugarte, manager of the immigration unit of the public defender’s office, said he is optimistic about Lurie, adding that challenging Trump out of the gate has the potential to backfire.

“Many of us in these circles are adopting the approach of power, not panic,” Ugarte said. “Our zest to respond to every little thing, ironically, ended up doing damage by repeating Trump’s talking points.”

Mike Tyson famously said that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. Monday’s executive orders would be more like the opening bell. But whether he wants it or not, the fight is coming for Lurie.