By Sebastian Herrera

Salesforce Chief Executive Marc Benioff is apologizing for comments in which he called for President Trump to send the National Guard to San Francisco.

"Having listened closely to my fellow San Franciscans and our local officials -- and after the largest and safest Dreamforce in our history -- I do not believe the National Guard is needed to address safety in San Francisco," Benioff said in a statement.

"My earlier comment came from an abundance of caution around the event, and I sincerely apologize for the concern it caused."

Benioff made the comments in an Oct. 10 New York Times interview. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, he said he was responding to a shortage of officers in the San Francisco Police Department that has forced his company to bring in additional officers from outside the city to provide security during its annual Dreamforce conference.

"I am in the downtowns of every major city in the world running conferences and events just like this," he said. "There's only one city where I have to hire 200 cops."

Angel investor Ron Conway resigned Thursday from the board of directors of the Salesforce Foundation Thursday in response to Benioff's remarks. "It saddens me immensely to say that with your recent comments, and failure to understand their impact, I now barely recognize the person I have so long admired," he wrote in a letter viewed by The Journal. Conway didn't respond to a request for comment.

In a Wall Street Journal essay, investor and philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs criticized Benioff for citing his financial and charitable expenditures in San Francisco in justifying his call for the National Guard. "In his eyes, generosity is an auction -- and policy is the prize awarded to the highest bidder," she wrote.

Benioff said his apology was motivated by feedback he received from the local community. He sent a reporter a link to the Wikipedia entry for "Shoshin," or beginner's mind, a Japanese Buddhist concept meaning an attitude of openness. He said he also meditated on the matter.

Benioff, who describes himself as an independent, held a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016. Under his leadership, Salesforce has taken progressive positions on cultural issues. Benioff clashed with other tech billionaires over his sponsorship of a city ballot measure that imposed a new tax on large companies to fund services for the homeless.

He was among a wave of tech company leaders and investors who welcomed Trump into office, declaring it "a time of great promise for our nation" after his election.

Trump said Wednesday that he was considering sending the National Guard to San Francisco and had "great support" for such a course of action.

A number of elected officials in San Francisco pushed back against Benioff's remarks. In an interview Wednesday, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie pointed to multidecade lows in the city's crime rates. "I feel like we have to continue to get the message out that San Francisco is on the rise, and not everybody has heard it," he said.

Write to Sebastian Herrera at sebastian.herrera@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 17, 2025 17:16 ET (21:16 GMT)

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