President Trump had planned an operation to “surge” San Francisco by marching National Guard troops into the city, but was convinced to alter course, he said on a post on his social network Truth Social on Thursday. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff were among the tech industry’s luminaries who called him and convinced him to change his mind, the post said.
San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie confirmed in a statement that the military operation had been planned and called off, although he didn’t name names as to who had conversations with the President.
Benioff’s involvement is particularly notable. Earlier this month — shortly before Salesforce held its enormous tech conference in San Francisco, where it is headquartered – Benioff (who was born and raised there) said he supported Trump. He also said he thought National Guard troops should be sent to patrol its streets. That comment caused VC legend Ron Conway to resign his decade-long board seat on Salesforce’s philanthropic foundation and condemn both the comments and his friend, Benioff.
Benioff promptly apologized and walked back his wish for National Guard patrols. “… 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 post on X earlier this month. So, it appears the CEO doubled down and actually pleaded the case to the White House, too.
Mayor Lurie will be speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco next week. Perhaps we’ll hear more about how the city, ground zero of the AI industry, has improved safety and rallied to de-escalate the situation.
