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 made this announcement in a post on his social network Truth Social on Thursday. According to the post, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff were among the tech industry leaders who called him and convinced him to change his mind.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie confirmed in a statement that the military operation had been planned and called off, although he did not name who had conversations with the President.
Benioff’s involvement is particularly notable. Earlier this month, shortly before Salesforce held its large tech conference in San Francisco, Benioff 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. He stated that after the largest and safest Dreamforce in the company’s history, he did not believe the National Guard was needed to address safety in San Francisco. 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 will hear more about how the city, ground zero of the AI industry, has improved safety and rallied to de-escalate the situation.