Salesforce spokesperson dodges question about Benioff National Guard comments: watch

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce event got underway in San Francisco Tuesday amid ongoing fallout from CEO Marc Benioff calling for the National Guard to be deployed in the city. The billionaire Salesforce founder told the New York Times that federal troops could help reduce crime in the city ahead of this week’s Dreamforce.

“We don’t have enough cops, so if they can be cops, I’m all for it,” Benioff told the Times.

Benioff’s remarks have sparked a backlash from city officials with a spokesperson for Mayor Daniel Lurie saying public safety is the “administration’s number one priority,” and touting plans for increase police staffing.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said federal troops were not welcome in the city, telling KRON4 that, “what we don’t need is to invite President Trump’s chaos into our city.”

On Tuesday, Salesforce Senior Vice President of Strategic Events, Erin Oles, declined to directly answer a question about Benioff’s comment.

“We’re really proud of the partnership that we have with the City of San Francisco and the mayor’s office. We work so closely all year together to put together this incredible event and we’re focused on having an exceptional, safe and wonderful event this week and we just can’t wait to share that with all of our attendees,” Oles told KRON4’s Will Tran (watch the exchange in the video player above).

Benioff’s comments about the National Guard are not the only thing he’s said publicly that’s landed him in hot water recently. Last month the CEO, who is a San Francisco native, raised eyebrows when he appeared to brag that AI had enabled him to cut 4,000 jobs.

A Salesforce spokesperson later told KRON4 that many of the impacted employees had been redeployed to other areas.

Benioff has sought to walk back his comments about the National Guard, saying they were about the city’s police shortage. Following the backlash to this week’s comments, Benioff announced Salesforce would be investing $15 billion into San Francisco over the next five years, including $1 million to support larger hiring bonuses for new police officers.

Salesforce is the largest private employer in the City of San Francisco.