San Fran Leftists Triggered As Tech Billionaire Calls For National Guard Troops

A long-left-leaning billionaire philanthropist has triggered San Francisco politicians by praising President Trump’s performance in office — and even more so by urging Trump to deploy National Guard soldiers to suppress the city’s rampant criminality.

“I fully support the president,” said Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff in an interview with the New York Times. “I think he’s doing a great job.” That puts Benioff at stark odds with his fellow San Franciscans: In a June Public Policy Institute of California poll, 77% of Bay Area residents disapproved of Trump’s performance. Benioff recounted his recent honor of sitting across a table from Trump at a state dinner hosted by King Charles at Windsor Castle, and said he used the dinner to tell Trump “how grateful I am for everything he’s doing.”

The Times notes that Benioff, a major benefactor of San Francisco, has leaned toward the left side of the spectrum — for example, urging other business leaders to help the homeless rather than gripe about their existence. Now, however, as homeless, drugged-out criminals are destroying San Francisco, he’s ready for soldiers and Humvees to pour into the city he says is woefully under-policed — figuring it needs another 1,000 cops on top of the 1,500 that are currently on the force. 

The situation has compelled Benioff to take matters into his own hands, where his upcoming Dreamforce conference is concerned: He’s hiring hundreds of off-duty cops to secure the area around the San Francisco convention area. “You’ll see. When you walk through San Francisco next week, there will be cops on every corner,” Benioff said. “That’s how it used to be.” Until the city’s police force is beefed up, Benioff endorses the use of National Guard soldiers. “We don’t have enough cops, so if they can be cops, I’m all for it,” he said. 

That’s a particularly interesting stance, given Benioff is close friends with California Gov. Gavin Newsom — so close, in fact, that Benioff is a godfather to one of the Newsom’s children. As Benioff endorses Trump deployment of National Guard troops to San Francisco, Newsom is suing the Trump administration over the deployment of Guard soldiers to Los Angeles. Benioff’s left-leaning resume also includes his hosting of a major 2016 fundraiser for Hillary Clinton at his $31 million mansion alongside the Presidio, and his personal bankrolling of a city ballot measure to raise taxes on businesses to fund welfare for the homeless.  

“This is a slap in the face to San Francisco,” Matt Dorsey, a member of the city’s Board of Supervisors, wrote on X. “It’s insulting to our cops, and it’s honestly galling to those of us who’ve been fighting hard over the last few years to fully staff our [police department]…We don’t NEED the National Guard here.” State Sen. Scott Wiener, who’s best known for pushing the LGBTQ agenda, chimed in, saying “We neither need nor want an illegal military occupation in San Francisco.” Assemblyman Matt Haney decried Benioff’s “support [of] a direct assault and occupation of our city,” while the Times described San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins as “livid” over Benioff’s stance on troops. 

To be fair to him, how could Benioff have anticipated that taxing all the businesses and giving the $$ to vagrants would result in many fewer businesses and many more vagrants?

— Moses Kagan (@moseskagan) October 11, 2025

It’s safe to say a Benioff aide anticipated the backlash: The Times story about the phone interview with him aboard his private plane concludes in amusing fashion: 

At the end of the interview, he turned to a public relations executive. He could be heard asking why her mouth was wide open and if he had said anything he shouldn’t have. “What about the political questions?” he asked. “Too spicy?” Then he hung up. 

San Francisco Mayor last month: There will no longer be an option for people to sleep and use drugs on our streets.

San Francisco today:
https://t.co/0RAkC3h8Mg

— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) October 11, 2025

In August, Trump teased the possibility of sending troops to San Francisco, telling reporters in the Oval Office, “You look at what the Democrats have done to San Francisco — they’ve destroyed it...we’ll clean that one up, too.”