Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has come under fire after calling on the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops to combat crime in his home city of San Francisco, with Matt Dorsey, a Democratic member of the city’s Board of Supervisors, branding it a “slap in the face.”
Newsweek has contacted Benioff via the Salesforce press office outside of regular office hours.
Why It Matters
The Trump administration deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles in June following anti-immigration enforcement rioting, and to Washington D.C. in August in a bid to combat crime.
President Trump has said he wants to deploy National Guard troops to other Democratic-controlled cities such as Chicago and Portland, though both these efforts have run into legal difficulty.
Once regarded as a staunch supporter of progressive causes, Benioff’s comments represent a notable political realignment for one of the city’s most high-profile business leaders. Benioff is the latest in a long line of tech leaders who have praised Trump following his 2024 presidential election victory.
What To Know
In a New York Times interview published on Friday, Benioff expressed strong support for President Trump’s leadership and suggested that National Guard troops could help address crime in San Francisco, stating, “We don’t have enough cops, so if they can be cops, I’m all for it.”
Benioff said that he personally hires hundreds of off-duty police officers to provide security for Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce convention, which brings over 50,000 visitors to the city, and called on city leaders in San Francisco to “re-fund” the police.
In a post on X, San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey wrote: “This is a slap in the face to San Francisco. It’s insulting to our cops, and it’s honestly galling to those of us who’ve been fighting hard over the last few years to fully staff our San Francisco police.”
Benioff’s endorsement of Trump and suggested military intervention marks a sharp departure from his previous positions. In 2016, he hosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, then the Democratic presidential candidate, and in 2018 personally funded a business tax for homeless services. His latest shift has largely put him at odds with local and state Democratic leaders.
In September, Benioff was one of several tech leaders who joined Trump for a dinner hosted by King Charles III at Windsor Castle during the president’s state visit to the UK.
What People Are Saying
Speaking to The New York Times, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said: “San Franciscans right now sit scared that we are next in line for what Trump is delivering to other cities across this nation…I’m disappointed that anyone would want to invite that chaos into our city.”
In an X post, California state Senator Scott Wiener, a Democrat, said: “Salesforce is a great San Francisco company that does so much good for our city. Inviting Trump to send the National Guard here is not one of those good things. Quite the opposite. We neither need nor want an illegal military occupation in San Francisco.”
Speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle, a statement from Daniel Lurie’s office, the city’s mayor, said public safety “is and has always been our administration’s number one priority.”
It added: “Mayor Lurie launched his Rebuilding the Ranks plan in May to bring our police staffing up to the expert-recommended goal of 2,000 officers. And for the first time in nearly a decade, San Francisco is seeing net gains in both police officers and sheriff’s deputies.”
Speaking to NBC Bay Area about tech leaders, political analyst Larry Gerston said: “Now there’s no question that almost all of [the tech community] are on the side of Trump. Whether it’s convenient or their philosophies have changed, we don’t know.”
What Happens Next
In August, Trump included San Francisco on the list of Democratic-run cities that could be sent federal troops to combat crime, commenting: “We’ll clean that one up, too.” It remains to be seen if any such deployment will be ordered and if so whether it will survive the almost inevitable legal challenges from city and state leaders.