We all know that Trump is highly influenced by television, and a fairly out-of-date prime time special by Bill O'Reilly on NewsNation Thursday titled "The Decline and Fall of San Francisco" is likely the reason Trump complained about the city again during a cabinet meeting.

Whether or not he'd seen the special — and it hadn't aired yet in prime time — by the time President Trump was having a cabinet meeting at the White House Thursday, Trump likely was aware that longtime Fox News favorite Bill O'Reilly was airing his TV special on NewsNation Thursday. Titled "The Decline and Fall of San Francisco," O'Reilly's special feels decidedly three years late in catching the bandwagon of decrying the sad street conditions in San Francisco — but then again, conservatives holding up San Francisco as an example of everything they hate is a decades-old trope, and it's one that's never far from being recycled again.

It seems that O'Reilly was here for Super Bowl weekend, and in order to write off more of his expenses, decided to shoot a new TV special.

"The city tried to clean itself up," O'Reilly says. "Herding the homeless into overnight shelters where they could not be seen."

Did they though? Last I heard, we actually don't have that much shelter space.

O'Reilly does go on to praise Mayor Daniel Lurie, saying he's "dialed back some of the progressive nonsense, and by some metrics, things are getting better."

But, he pretty quickly pivots to showing a clip of the scuffle that occurred between Lurie's security detail and a man on the street in the Tenderloin three weeks ago.

"Just look! Mayor Lurie's motorcade was attacked by Tenderloin thugs right after he gave a speech denouncing the city's broken government," O'Reilly says. "I mean, come on!"

Is it any wonder, then, that San Francisco was on Trump's mind again Thursday, despite literally everything else that is going on?

As KTVU reports, Trump suddenly veered into ominous talk of things "going very slowly" when it comes to improvement in SF, and this is likely because Trump either saw the viral clip involving the mayor, or because he he heard about/saw clips from O'Reilly's special during his morning toilet scrolling.

"I had friends calling me up from San Francisco," Trump said. "Could you give [the mayor] a chance? I said, absolutely, if you want, I will give him a chance. And he's, he's trying. He's doing okay. But we could do much better. We could make it a lot safer than it is. San Francisco. What a great city was. A great city. Could quickly become a great city again. But, you know, they're going very slowly."

Trump then apparently reiterated talk doing more immigration enforcement in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, as well as SF.

Lurie issued a statement in response, saying, "In San Francisco, crime is down 30%, encampments are at record lows, and our city is on the rise. Public safety is my number one priority, and we are going to stay laser focused on keeping our streets safe and clean."

Perhaps Trump's comment was also possibly motivated by the Republican consternation in Congress over the Homeland Security funding bill, which has now passed in the Senate with no new funding for immigration enforcement, after successful Democratic efforts to hold it up. Today, House Republicans are debating whether they will pass the bill. Members of the Freedom Caucus are reportedly pushing to hold it up further in order to do more of the president's bidding, vis a vis ICE and voting restrictions for November.

In any event, Trump's approval rating, even in a new Fox News poll, is sinking, with that polling finding disapproval with the president at 59%, and negative feelings about his handling of the Iran War at 64%.

Better distract everyone by sending National Guard troops into an American city again!

Top image: U.S. President Donald Trump reacts during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on March 26, 2026 in Washington, DC. This is Trump's second Cabinet meeting of 2026 and the first since the United States and Israel began attacking Iran on February 28. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)