President Donald Trump repeatedly blamed Democrats for crime in San Francisco as he threatened to send in federal agents over the summer, but it turns out his policies have actually left the city without the proper resources to tackle its deadly drug crisis.
Trump, who had earned the “TACO” moniker months earlier for “always chickening out” on tariff threats, spent months threatening a “surge” of federal agents in San Francisco before quietly backing away from the idea in late October after speaking to some “friends,” he wrote on Truth Social at the time.
Instead, the administration diverted thousands of federal agents away from agencies such as the FBI, DEA, and ATF, and instructed them to focus on immigration enforcement, resulting in a steep decline in prosecutions for practically all types of federal crimes, according to new analysis.
Arresting street-level drug dealers is one thing, an agency official told Reuters, but taking down high-level drug trafficking rings is an intensive and time-consuming process, requiring hours of surveillance, infiltration, and wiretaps.
“These things take persistent effort, and if you’re being pulled in different directions, it’s hard to make it happen,” they said.
Instead of focusing on such investigations, federal agents are being bused around the country to take part in immigration raids, removing one of the state’s most effective tools for combating high-level crime.
Analysis of court records by Reuters paints a stark picture. The number of people charged with federal crimes in San Francisco has dropped 40 percent since 2024, marking a sharp decline in the number of drug traffickers, illegal arms dealers, and violent criminals facing charges. The decrease in federal drug prosecutions alone was around 50 percent, falling to just 137 cases.
“They just don’t have the agents to do criminal cases,” a former Justice Department official told Reuters on the condition of anonymity.
The problem is not confined to San Francisco either: Records show that the Justice Department brought criminal charges against just 355 people as of Nov. 1, down from 575 during the same period last year.
Although San Francisco has less violent crime than most major U.S. cities, its illegal drug trade, driven by the cheap but deadly fentanyl, has had a devastating impact on the community, killing over 3,200 people over the past five years, the city’s medical examiner reports. The lack of federal intervention has only made the problem worse.
“Dealers are 100 percent afraid of the feds,” said Tom Wolf of the group Rescue SF, which advocates for solutions to homelessness in the city. “But city police? They laugh at them. The dealers are not afraid of them at all,” he added, pointing to the difference in state and federal prison sentences.
“Even with the police here, that has not deterred the folks from being here, dealing, and using openly,” added Jason Finau of the Glide Foundation, which provides services to addicts.
Courts have instead been packed with illegal immigration cases, a situation made worse after the Department of Justice fired twelve immigration judges this year, leaving just nine judges in place for the entirety of San Francisco, Mission Local reports.
Justice Department spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre rejected claims that the administration’s focus on immigration has impacted federal prosecutions. “Assisting our partners with immigration enforcement has not deterred our ability to also successfully investigate and prosecute other types of crime to keep American citizens safe,” she said in a statement.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson echoed that statement, telling Reuters, “The criminal illegal aliens now being arrested and removed from the country include terrorists, human traffickers, drug smugglers, and others participating in or organizing high-level, coordinated crimes.” She declined to comment specifically on federal activities in San Francisco.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for further comment.
The post TACO Trump’s Crime Crackdown Ended Up Doing the Exact Opposite appeared first on The Daily Beast.
