SF Mayor Daniel Lurie, who has spent months treading carefully when it comes to discussing national politics, has now emerged as an unlikely recipient of praise from President Donald Trump, among Democratic mayors.

Maybe it was a canny calculation that paid off, or maybe it was just the way of rich guys talking to other rich guys and coming to a backroom understanding. Whatever the case, Donald Trump is now mentioning San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie by name, and doing so positively — with his cabinet apparently fully in support of Lurie as well.

As the New York Times reports from a White House round table on Thursday, Trump reiterated his decision to call off a planned incursion of federal agents and/or troops in San Francisco this weekend after phone calls with Lurie, as well as "friends" Marc Benioff and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

"It’s very different from the vicious way Trump has described mayors of other big, blue cities," the Times notes, saying that other cabinet members spoke favorably about Lurie and Trump added, "I told the mayor, 'I love what you’re doing.'"

This is, of course, a huge about-face from just five days ago, when Trump was declaring in no uncertain terms that the city was a disaster, and "San Francisco was truly one of the great cities of the world. And then 15 years ago it went wrong. It went woke."

The Times also notes that Attorney General Pam Bondi is now planning to "meet with Lurie soon to talk about fentanyl," something that Lurie also mentioned in a press conference Thursday.

This could all be a positive turn of events that came in part because Lurie has avoided even speaking Trump's name publicly in the first ten months of his mayorship, let alone saying anything bad about him. He has been happy to let Governor Gavin Newsom declare a full-court press on Trump, mocking and criticizing him on a weekly if not daily basis. (And the irony with Trump's "15 years ago" comment was that Gavin Newsom was just ending a six-year run of being in charge of the city 15 years ago, and 20 years ago Newsom was also mayor.)

House Speaker Emerita and SF's representative in Congress Nancy Pelosi gave a statement Thursday saying, "I salute Mayor Lurie for standing up for our city and reinforcing San Francisco’s strength, optimism and recovery."

Meanwhile, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee says she has received no such assurances from the president, and with federal agents still reportedly gathered on Coast Guard Island, in the Oakland Estuary, some sort of immigration actions could still be pending the East Bay in the coming days, in lieu of any activity in San Francisco.

As Lee tells the Times, "We have no idea. This is very fluid. We are moving forward with our plans, and we are prepared."

In a separate statement, Mayor Lee said, "I have not received any communication from the White House or the Department of Homeland Security regarding federal operations in Oakland, however, I am in touch with the Governor’s Office and our federal delegation.” She added that if the President contacted her, she would "engage with anyone, at any level of government, to protect Oakland residents, as long as it respects our community's values and constitutional rights."

District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson added, "We know they’re baiting Oakland, and that’s why San Francisco all of a sudden is off the table. I’m not going to be quiet about what’s coming."

The agressive actions of federal agents responding to protesters at the gates of Coast Guard Island this morning, which are situated on Oakland's Embarcadero, certainly align with the behavior of federal agents guarding properties in the Los Angeles area in recent months.

As the Chronicle reports, federal agents used "low-roll" stun grenades and pepper-spray balls to clear protesters from the gates, as vehicles were arriving their Thursday morning. One of the pepper-spray rounds struck a protester, local pastor Jorge Bautista in the chin, sending him to the emergency room.

The Reverend Deborah Lee, who helped to organize Thursday morning's protest in Oakland, urged activists to "Stay vigilant," as Oakland North reports. "We don’t know what this means for Alameda County, we don’t know what this means for the rest of the Bay Area, and we also know that ICE terrorizes our communities every day," Lee said.

Previously: Trump Tells Mayor Daniel Lurie That Federal Deployment In SF Is Called Off

Top image:  San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie speaks during a press conference at San Francisco City Hall on October 23, 2025 in San Francisco, California. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie says he received a call from U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday evening to tell him that the anticipated surge of federal immigration agents in San Francisco has been called off. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

This post has been updated with the statement from Mayor Barbara Lee.