SAN FRANCISCO — President Donald Trump had largely left San Francisco alone this year as he targeted Democratic-led cities and insisted that federal troops were needed to restore order.

San Francisco, long the subject of attacks from conservatives over its problems with drug use and homelessness, seemed to be turning a corner in the national consciousness. Crime was falling, and a moderate new mayor was celebrating progress toward a downtown recovery.

That changed Friday, when Trump added the city to the list of places where he might send in the National Guard, which he had already done in Washington and Los Angeles.

“You look at what the Democrats have done to San Francisco — they’ve destroyed it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We can clean that up, too — we’ll clean that o

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