SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff declined to directly address questions about Trump administration policy or comments he made last week regarding the National Guard. Benioff has been under fire for comments he made to The New York Times last week, showing support for federal troops being deployed to San Francisco.
“We don’t have enough cops, so if they can be cops, I’m all for it,” Benioff said to NYT.
The comments were met with backlash from San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. In the wake of the backlash, Benioff took to X to pledge $15 billion to SF over the next five years, including $1 million for police signing bonuses.
On Tuesday, at the keynote for Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce event, Benioff was asked to address his comments on the National Guard as well as the Trump administration’s H-1B visa policy and crackdown on free speech.
Benioff, who in addition to being the CEO of a major tech company, owns Time magazine, declined to address any of the issues directly. The Trump administration has controversially sought to slap a $100,000 fee onto H-1B visas, which are frequently a talent pipeline for tech companies like Salesforce.
“Well, I’m going to limit my comments today to Dreamforce, to Agentforce,” he said, referring to Salesforce’s AI sales agent product. “I mean, what I really want to do is, number one, I want to make sure all of you have a fantastic time at Dreamforce.”
“This is my number one thing,” he said. “Number two is I want to make sure you have a safe experience here, especially everyone here who’s from out of town.”
“That’s also why we have brought in over 200 of our own police to make sure that everyone who attends Dreamforce, including all of you, do have a good experience,” he added.
It was unclear from Benioff’s comments whether he was referring to private security, or if Salesforce had contracted San Francisco Police Department officers as security for the conference. KRON4 has reached out to SFPD for clarification.
“We’re doing everything we can to make this a safe experience,” Benioff added.
Earlier in the day Tuesday, a Salesforce spokesperson had similarly declined to directly address the CEO’s comments on the National Guard, saying the tech company was “focused on having an exceptional, safe and wonderful event this week.”
Benioff’s comments on safety came the same day Mayor Lurie issued a statement saying that crime in San Francisco had seen a 30% citywide drop with homicides on track to hit a 70-year-low.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
