Salesforce CEO attempts to avoid discussing his call last week for President Donald Trump to deploy troops to San Francisco
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff on Tuesday alternately tried to change the subject and explain away his recent call for President Donald Trump to deploy National Guard troops to San Francisco . Days after his comments were first published, Benioff avoided the topic entirely in his keynote speech opening his company’s annual Dreamforce conference at Moscone Center.
In a subsequent question-and-answer session that was packed with reporters as well as with industry analysts and customers, he fielded just one question about his comments to The New York Times. He responded that he was concerned about attendees’ safety and wanting to focus the session on the conference and the company’s new artificial-intelligence-powered Agentforce product. Toward that end, Salesforce brought in 200 police officers to ensure safety at the conference, which is the largest in The City by far, he said. “We’ve proven year after year after year how to make safe. That is the No. 1 thing on my mind: safety,” Benioff said at the press conference in comments recorded by tech journalist Ken Yeung. “And so as I’m asked questions, all these things, that’s just kind of what’s coming out. It’s all about trust and safety.” In an interview with the Times last week, Benioff said he liked the idea voiced by Trump in August of deploying troops to San Francisco and other Democratic-led cities. Benioff told the outlet he thought National Guard troops could help reduce The City’s crime.In a subsequent interview with The San Francisco Standard, Benioff stood by his comments about the National Guard, arguing the deployment was needed, because The City had “defunded” its police department. He also argued that crime is out of control in San Francisco.“If you live in San Francisco, you know that too,” he said. “I’m speaking the truth. I’ve seen things in San Francisco that need to be directly addressed by police, and if the police cannot address it, then bring in whoever can.” A trio of protestors on the immediate outskirts of the conference voiced similar concerns Tuesday afternoon. Comments from someone who’s as respected in the community as Benioff help validate Trump’s unconstitutional and unnecessary troop deployment, said Ken Hodnett, a 71-year-old San Francisco resident. Such calls are driven by emotion, not facts, he said. As such, Benioff’s comments were “just unconscionable,” said Hodnett, who carried a homemade sign saying “F--- off, Benioff.” The Salesforce leader was essentially calling for militarizing law enforcement in The City, said Michael Petrelis, 66. Given that Trump is threatening to send or has already sent troops into cities in contravention of the wishes of their governors and mayors, what he’s doing — and what Benioff is calling for — is fascism, said Petrelis, who is also a San Francisco resident.San Francisco never reduced funding to its police department in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. Although it has struggled in recent years to hire and retain officers, the size of The City’s police budget has consistently increased in recent years. It’s set to hit $857.9 billion in the 2026-27 fiscal year, up from $667.9 million in the 2020-21 fiscal year. What’s more, while crime rates spiked during the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic — as they did in many cities around the nation — they have fallen sharply since. Data from the San Francisco Police Department shows that reported crimes are down 26% in the year to date compared with the same period last year. Reported crimes previously fell 27.5% in 2024 over 2023, and 7% in the latter year from ’22. Ex // Top Stories Shutdown offers sobering lessons on political dishonesty Young people are learning lessons that can’t help but create long-lasting cynicism and disillusionment, Marc Sandalow writes Why Inflection AI is betting on emotion to stand out from the pack As recently as last year, the Palo Alto startup looked doomed. But CEO Sean White has jumpstarted and refocused the business SF Bay Ferry’s beverage collab sets sail with two new local breweries Regional ferry rides now feature two special brews while supplies last In the wake of his comments, numerous city leaders denounced Benioff’s call to deploy troops to San Francisco. “You can’t support San Francisco and want to see us invaded,” Democratic Assemblymember Matt Haney told the Times. “San Franciscans right now sit scared that we are next in line for what Trump is delivering to other cities across this nation,” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told the Times. “I’m disappointed that anyone would want to invite that chaos into our city.” Mayor Daniel Lurie, who has studiously avoided discussing Trump since taking office, has thus far declined to respond to Benioff’s comments. But in a press release Tuesday, he touted San Francisco’s declining crime rates. The City has recorded just 19 homicides so far this year — on pace to hit a 70-year low — and car break-ins are at a 22-year low, Lurie said in the press release. “Thanks to the work our teams are doing, San Franciscans are feeling optimistic about the direction of our city and the conditions on our streets for the first time in years,” Lurie said in the press release. In response to a query from The Examiner about Benioff's comments, Lurie spokesperson Charles Lutvak declined to address them. Instead, he touted the mayor's efforts to up police department staffing and the declining crime rate. "'We are moving in the right direction and will continue to prioritize safety and hiring while San Francisco law enforcement works every single day to keep our city safe," Lutvak said. Benioff’s comments about the National Guard — which were echoed over the weekend by Tesla CEO and major Trump donor Elon Musk — came in the wake of Trump deploying National Guard troops to Los Angeles, Memphis and Washington, D.C. Trump has also threatened to do so in Portland and Chicago, but has so far been blocked by federal courts. The president has tried to justify the deployments by arguing that the troops are needed to quell rampant crime and to assist or protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as they attempt to round up immigrants lacking permanent legal status. Crime rates have fallen sharply in most American cities in recent years, and state and city leaders in California, Illinois and Oregon have fiercely resisted the deployment of troops in their cities. Civil-rights activists and others have argued the troop deployments are anti-democratic and violate federal law. In an interview with Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast released Monday, former President Barack Obama called what Trump was doing “inherently corrupting” and a “politicization of the military.” In an appearance at the Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco last week, retired U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal called the deployments “a big mistake” that risked poisoning the public’s attitude toward the military. Benioff did not immediately respond to an email from The Examiner on Tuesday asking whether he regretted his comments about sending troops to San Francisco. The head of San Francisco’s largest private employer, Benioff has long been seen as a force for good in The City. He has donated millions of dollars to local charities, spearheaded a campaign in 2018 to raise taxes on businesses to fund programs to combat homelessness, and has collaborated with past mayors. On Friday, he announced a $100 million gift from his wife and him to UCSF’s children’s hospitals and a $39 million donation by Salesforce to local schools, children’s hospitals and nonprofits. On Sunday, he announced on Twitter a $1 million donation to SFPD to go toward hiring bonuses for new officers. A day later, the company said it would invest $15 billion in The City over the next five years as part of Salesforce’s AI efforts. But Benioff has also been vocally supportive of President Trump, especially since the latter started his second term in January. And at Dreamforce on Tuesday afternoon, he sat down for a fireside chat with Trump donor and advisor David Sacks. On Monday, Benioff was slated to take part in an outdoor press event with Lurie, but it was cancelled. Salesforce representatives reportedly blamed the rain but didn’t explain why the event wasn’t moved indoors. If you have a tip about tech, startups or the venture industry, contact Troy Wolverton at twolverton@sfexaminer.com or via text or Signal at 415.515.5594.
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