We have another clue about how and to what extent Mayor Daniel Lurie has been playing ball with the Trump administration — which we know led to Trump calling off his dogs back in October with that planned federal “surge.”
Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whom President Trump fired on Thursday amid various allegations of frivolous spending and general idiocy, was speaking at a law enforcement conference in Nashville at the time that Trump shot off his Truth Social post announcing her firing. Either shortly before or shortly after Noem learned she’d been fired, she answered a question posed by SFPD officer Chris Galligan — who is also vice president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association.
As the Chronicle reports, Galligan was asking about how the Department of Homeland Security could better support local law enforcement, and Noem responded about San Francisco in specific.
“You maybe have some challenges in San Francisco just because of your state laws and local laws, although you’ve got a mayor that works with us very well,” Noem said, somewhat tellingly. “He probably doesn’t want me to talk about it a lot actually, but he has been very cooperative and we have great conversations and talk quite often.”
She’s right that he definitely didn’t want her blowing his cover like that!
And, Noem added, likely parroting Trump because that’s what most of his current minions do, “I think your city has seen dramatic improvements under this leadership.”
A City Hall source has subsequently come out denying Noem’s remarks to Mission Local, though Lurie hasn’t made comment himself. According to the source, it is untrue that Lurie and Noem “talk quite often,” as she said.
You’ll recall that, back in October, when Trump abruptly called off a Bay Area surge by federal agents — likely designed to rile and provoke protesters and create a situation where Trump called in the National Guard, as he did in Los Angeles last summer — Trump spoke positively of a phone call he had with Lurie.
Trump, who also spoke that same night with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, wrote on Truth Social the following day that “friends” of his had urged him to call it off, saying SF was making “substantial progress.”
“I spoke to Mayor Lurie last night and he asked, very nicely, that I give him a chance to see if he can turn it around,” Trump wrote. “I told him I think he is making a mistake, because we can do it much faster, and remove the criminals that the Law does not permit him to remove. I told him, ‘It’s an easier process if we do it, faster, stronger, and safer but, let’s see how you do?'”
He added, “Great people like Jensen Huang, Marc Benioff, and others have called saying that the future of San Francisco is great. They want to give it a ‘shot.'”
At a cabinet meeting that same day, Trump told cabinet members, “I told the mayor, ‘I love what you’re doing.'” And Attorney General Pam Bondi said she planned to speak to Lurie the following week about the fentanyl crisis.
Lurie has since claimed attorney-client privilege in withholding whatever transcript or documentation there is of his call with Trump, and activists argue that Lurie is breaking the law by not sharing the documentation.
But, obviously, Lurie has been basking in his broad popularity during his first 14 months as mayor, and he doesn’t want that to be sullied by looking too deferential or chummy with Trump.
Noem’s comments suggest that he has had much greater and more frequent contact with the administration than we previously knew, which could lead to him needing to backpedal at some point.
It is notable that Lurie, unlike many other California politicians including Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, has refrained from making any public comments critical of Trump since he took office a second time, and that is obviously part of a strategy.
Related: Lurie Violated City Law by Keeping Records of Trump Phone Call Secret, City Committee Says
Top image: U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem testifies before the House Judiciary Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on March 04, 2026 in Washington, DC. The Department of Homeland Security has faced criticism over it’s handling of immigration enforcement leaving the department unfunded. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)