Salesforce CEO urges Trump to deploy National Guard to San Francisco

Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff has called on President Donald Trump to deploy the National Guard to San Francisco to combat the city’s crime.

Benioff made the remarks in an interview with the New York Times aboard his private plane while en route to San Francisco for the annual Dreamforce conference. He said that due to safety concerns, he had to hire hundreds of off-duty police officers to secure the event.

“We don’t have enough cops, so if they [National Guard] can be cops, I’m all for it,” Benioff said.

A federal judge ruled last month that Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. In recent weeks, Trump has sent National Guard forces to Portland and Chicago to protect federal officers amid ongoing immigration-related protests, drawing more legal challenges from state and local officials.

In September, Trump suggested he might send troops to several Democrat-led cities, including San Francisco, Chicago, and Los Angeles, describing them as “very unsafe places” that his administration will straighten out. 

“I told [War Secretary] Pete [Hegseth] we should use some of these dangerous cities as training for our military, our national guard,” Trump said at the time.

Benioff, who has previously supported both political parties, drew backlash from several San Francisco leaders for his comments. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said she “can’t be silent any longer,” accusing Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of turning “public safety and immigration enforcement into a form of government-sponsored violence against US citizens, families, and ethnic groups.”

“I am responsible for holding criminals accountable, and that includes holding government and law enforcement officials too, when they cross the bounds of the law,” she said on X. “If you come to San Francisco and illegally harass our residents, use excessive force or cross any other boundaries that the law prescribes, I will not hesitate to do my job and hold you accountable just like I do other violators of the law every single day.”

State Senator Scott Wiener also criticized Benioff’s remarks, saying, “We neither need nor want an illegal military occupation in San Francisco.”

“Salesforce is a great San Francisco company that does so much good for our city,” Weiner said. “Inviting Trump to send the National Guard here is not one of those good things. Quite the opposite."