diff --git a/airflow/models/trigger.py b/airflow/models/trigger.py
index 24e62789b597b..dc91fdccdf2ba 100644
--- a/airflow/models/trigger.py
+++ b/airflow/models/trigger.py
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 from airflow.models.taskinstance import TaskInstance
 from airflow.triggers.base import BaseTrigger
 from airflow.utils import timezone
+from airflow.utils.retries import run_with_db_retries
 from airflow.utils.session import provide_session
 from airflow.utils.sqlalchemy import ExtendedJSON, UtcDateTime
 from airflow.utils.state import State
@@ -88,9 +89,11 @@ def clean_unused(cls, session=None):
         (triggers have a one-to-many relationship to both)
         """
         # Update all task instances with trigger IDs that are not DEFERRED to remove them
-        session.query(TaskInstance).filter(
-            TaskInstance.state != State.DEFERRED, TaskInstance.trigger_id.isnot(None)
-        ).update({TaskInstance.trigger_id: None})
+        for attempt in run_with_db_retries():
+            with attempt:
+                session.query(TaskInstance).filter(
+                    TaskInstance.state != State.DEFERRED, TaskInstance.trigger_id.isnot(None)
+                ).update({TaskInstance.trigger_id: None})
         # Get all triggers that have no task instances depending on them...
         ids = [
             trigger_id