Once again, President Trump threatens military action in San Francisco

QUANTICO, Va. - Once again, President Trump on Tuesday threatened to send the military into American cities, including San Francisco.

"The Democrats run most of the cities that are in bad shape," he said in Quantico, Virg., addressing an audience of military brass. "We have many cities in great shape too, by the way. I want you to know that. But it seems that the ones that are run by the radical left Democrats, what they've done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, they're very unsafe places. And we're going to straighten them out one by one. And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room."

Trump was joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who declared an end to "woke" culture and announced new directives for troops that include "gender-neutral" or "male-level" standards for physical fitness.

In keeping with the nonpartisan tradition of the armed services, the military leaders sat mostly stone-faced through Trump’s politicized remarks, a contrast from when rank-and-file soldiers cheered during Trump’s speech at Fort Bragg this summer.

Trump has already tested the limits of a nearly 150-year-old federal law, the Posse Comitatus Act, that restricts the military’s role in law enforcement.

He has sent National Guard and active duty Marines to Los Angeles, threatened to do the same to combat crime and illegal immigration in other Democratic-led cities, and surged troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.

National Guard members are generally exempt from the law because they’re under state control. But the law does apply when they’re "federalized" and put under the president’s control, as happened in LA over the Democratic governor’s objections.

Back in San Francisco, Mayor Daniel Lurie said he's focused on the elements he can control.

"Yeah, I'm going to focus on keeping San Franciscans safe," Lurie said. "That's what I've been doing since day one. I cannot control what's coming out of D.C. I can only focus on what we're doing here. Crime in San Francisco is down 30%. It's down 40% in our financial district, and we're continuing to drive those numbers down, and people are feeling better here in San Francisco, and that's what I can control.