“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,”
“My earlier comment came from an abundance of caution around the event, and I sincerely apologize for the concern it caused.”
The reversal came after unprecedented backlash that saw venture capitalist Ron Conway resign from the Salesforce Foundation board after more than 25 years of friendship, city officials publicly rebuking him, and employees condemning his stance.
But the apology arrived only hours after The New York Times revealed internal documents showing Salesforce pitching itself as a tool to boost hiring for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, suggesting how AI could help evaluate tips and improve ICE investigations.
Conway, often called the “Godfather of Silicon Valley,” told Benioff in an email that their “values were no longer aligned.” The email, obtained by The New York Times, laid bare the fracture between two of San Francisco’s most prominent tech figures who had collaborated for decades.
“I have expressed candidly to you, repeatedly, in recent days, that I am shocked and disappointed by your comments calling for an unwanted invasion of San Francisco by federal troops,”
“and by your willful ignorance and detachment from the impacts of the ICE immigration raids of families with NO criminal record.”
Conway, a longtime Democratic donor who contributed around $500,000 to funds tied to Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign, added:
“I now barely recognize the person I have so long admired.”
The resignation ends a partnership spanning a decade on the Salesforce Foundation board, which donated $36 million in 2023 and ended that year with $400 million in assets. For Conway, who backed companies including Google, Airbnb, and Stripe, the break represented more than professional disagreement, it signaled a values chasm.
Benioff’s initial comments to The New York Times last week claimed San Francisco needed federal intervention due to rampant crime. He declared his support for Trump’s threats to deploy National Guard troops, telling the paper
“We don’t have enough cops, so if they can be cops, I’m all for it.”
The assertion collided with statistical reality. The San Francisco Police Department reported 11 homicides in the first half of 2025 compared to 17 during the same period in 2024, with rape down 53%, robberies down 27%, and aggravated assault down 13%, according to Major Cities Chiefs Association data.
Overall violent crime in San Francisco dropped 22% in 2025 compared to 2024, according to California’s Office of the Governor. Mayor Daniel Lurie noted homicides are on pace to be at a 70-year low.
The apology came hours after The New York Times revealed internal documents showing Salesforce pitching AI technology to help ICE rapidly hire 10,000 new agents and process tip-line data more efficiently. Materials included a five-page memo, a spreadsheet of potential “opportunities” to work with ICE, and slides brainstorming how AI could improve investigations.
San Francisco State Senator Scott Wiener told reporters “It’s completely unacceptable for any San Francisco company to help ICE scale up so that it can deploy more secret police to terrorize people in American neighborhoods.”
The revelations exposed fundamental tensions in Salesforce’s relationship with federal power. Benioff described federal agencies, collectively, as Salesforce’s “largest and most important customer” in a September earnings call, representing billions in revenue. Salesforce told The New York Times it had served the US government under previous administrations, contracting with ICE under the Obama and Biden administrations.
The company’s entanglement with federal immigration enforcement creates perverse incentives: more aggressive ICE operations mean more potential contracts, even if those operations contradict the progressive values Benioff long championed. Microsoft, IBM, and Palantir all have contracts with ICE, but Benioff’s simultaneous embrace of Trump’s militarization rhetoric while pitching AI-powered deportation tools struck critics as particularly egregious given his San Francisco roots.
A group of Salesforce workers wrote that Benioff’s support for sending National Guard troops represented “a troubling hypocrisy,” indicating internal tensions that may continue affecting company culture.
Trump has already deployed the National Guard in other cities including Washington, DC and Chicago, creating legal battles nationwide. On October 4, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth mobilized 300 members of the Illinois National Guard to Chicago, and about 200 members of the Texas National Guard were also deployed, according to U.S. Northern Command.
A federal judge in Oregon granted a temporary restraining order blocking deployment to Portland, saying protests, which the judge described as having fewer than 30 people and “largely sedate”, did not justify a military response. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat, has repeatedly described deployments as an “invasion” of his state.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told reporters that federal troops already deployed in cities like Chicago continue to “spiral out of control,” stating “Tear gas is being deployed, assaults are happening. We just cannot afford to have what is happening [in Chicago] go on here.”
The deployments have sparked constitutional challenges nationwide, with critics arguing Trump’s use of Title 10, section 12406 authority, which allows federalizing National Guard units in cases of rebellion or invasion, doesn’t apply to peaceful protests or immigration enforcement.
An event scheduled to feature Benioff and Mayor Lurie on Monday was abruptly canceled, with Salesforce citing rainy weather. The event was meant to announce donations to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital and local public schools.
Hours after Benioff’s apology, Lurie wrote on X: “Dreamforce brought more than 45,000 people into San Francisco, and it was a public safety success.”
State Senator Wiener told Politico:
“I’m grateful that Marc walked back his call for the National Guard to be deployed in San Francisco. Marc has done so many good things for our city and supported so many civic needs, and I’m glad to see this shift.”
Laurene Powell Jobs questioned Benioff’s generosity in an opinion piece published Friday in The Wall Street Journal, suggesting his philanthropy aimed to secure influence over public policy rather than genuinely serve the community.
The week’s events demonstrated that even in an era of tech CEOs courting Trump, there remain limits, particularly in liberal strongholds like San Francisco. The backlash suggests Silicon Valley’s rightward tilt, while real, isn’t cost-free. While leaders from OpenAI, Oracle, Apple, and Meta have sought accommodation with the Trump administration, few have experienced such immediate consequences.
Professor Keally McBride of the University of San Francisco noted that Benioff, who has largely relocated to Hawaii, “is probably not in touch with what life in San Francisco really is like these days. And he’s not thinking very clearly about the human costs that are associated with bringing in the National Guard to police.”
The apology from Benioff did not walk back his support for Trump, leaving observers uncertain whether his reversal on National Guard deployment represents genuine reconsideration or merely tactical retreat. What began as an interview comment about public safety at Dreamforce, which drew more than 50,000 attendees and involved 300,000+ security screenings with 200 additional officers, escalated into a crisis exposing contradictions between tech wealth, progressive values, and the pursuit of federal contracts.
For Benioff, the apology may end the immediate controversy. But the deeper questions about corporate complicity in federal enforcement operations, the price of government contracts, and the responsibilities of tech leaders in their home cities will likely persist long after the National Guard debate fades from headlines.
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