(Bloomberg) — Salesforce Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff apologized for calling on President Donald Trump to send the National Guard to San Francisco, after almost a week of public criticism from local allies and government officials for his statements.
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“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 wrote Friday in a post on social network X.
The Salesforce co-founder has faced backlash after saying in an interview with the New York Times that he “fully” supports Trump and that National Guard troops should be deployed to San Francisco. On Thursday, venture capitalist Ron Conway, a longtime friend of Benioff’s, resigned from the board of Salesforce’s philanthropic foundation due to the comments.
For more: Benioff Slammed by Longtime VC Ally Over San Francisco Comments
“My earlier comment came from an abundance of caution” around the company’s annual Dreamforce conference in San Francisco this week, “and I sincerely apologize for the concern it caused,” Benioff wrote in the post.
Benioff was long seen as a reliable backer of liberal causes. He donated money to Democrats, advocated for a San Francisco tax increase to fund initiatives to help the city’s homeless and threatened to pull investment from Indiana after the state passed a law allowing antigay discrimination on religious grounds.
But like many technology industry leaders, his tone on some issues has been seen as leaning more toward the right during the second Trump administration. He has also spent more time away from San Francisco in recent years.
On Monday, Benioff announced a $100 million gift to children’s hospitals in the city that bear his name and to city schools. He was initially scheduled to announce the donation alongside San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and other city leaders, but the event was canceled, with Salesforce citing rainy weather.
Benioff also faced criticism from billionaire and fellow San Francisco philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs. In an opinion piece published Friday, she questioned his generosity if he expected control over public policy in return.