Benioff slammed by longtime VC ally over call for troops in San Francisco

By Biz Carson and Felipe Marques

(Bloomberg) — Venture capitalist Ron Conway is leaving the board of Salesforce Inc.’s philanthropic foundation after blasting Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff for calling on President Donald Trump to send the National Guard to San Francisco.

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“It saddens me immensely to say that with your recent comments, and failure to understand their impact, I now barely recognize the person I have so long admired,” Conway said in an email sent Thursday to Benioff and several board members of San Francisco-based Salesforce. A copy of the message was reviewed by Bloomberg News.

Conway told Benioff that he was “shocked and disappointed by your comments calling for an unwanted invasion of San Francisco by federal troops and by your willful ignorance and detachment from the impacts of the ICE immigration raids of families with NO criminal record, attacks on freedom of speech, and other unlawful policies.”

On Wednesday, Trump floated San Francisco as a potential target for National Guard deployments as part of his federal crime crackdown. Benioff told the New York Times last week that he supported such a move. “If they can be cops, I’m all for it,” he said.

Conway declined to comment through a spokesperson, while Benioff didn’t respond to a request for comment. A Salesforce representative said in a statement, “We have deep gratitude for Ron Conway and his incredible contributions to the Salesforce Foundation board.”

The email was reported earlier Thursday by the Times.

Trump has moved to deploy US troops and federal law enforcement officials to major cities — including Los Angeles, Washington, Memphis, Chicago and Portland — to target crime and counter demonstrations against his deportations of undocumented migrants. The president has claimed that Democratic state and local officials have failed to protect citizens and allowed violence to spiral out of control, even as San Francisco’s crime rates have fallen in recent months and the city is on track to see the fewest homicides since the 1950s.

Conway’s acrimonious message lays bare a larger conflict within Silicon Valley, as tech luminaries, including some longtime Democratic donors like Benioff, have flocked to Trump. In the tight-knit circle of big tech and venture capital, that shift is causing tensions that are now bubbling up to the surface.

Conway, 74, has long been an ally of Benioff’s and served on the foundation’s board for more than a decade. The founder of SV Angel, Conway has been a major political donor, backing Democrat Kamala Harris for president on 2024. He has also been involved in local San Francisco causes, including helping fund Mayor Daniel Lurie’s inauguration.

The comments caused an uproar in San Francisco, where Benioff, 61, held his firm’s Dreamforce event this week, which attracts tens of thousands of Salesforce employees and customers. Comedians Kumail Nanjiani and Ilana Glazer canceled their performances at the three-day event, though neither publicly criticized Benioff or Salesforce, according to the San Francisco Standard.

In his email, Conway lambasted Benioff for his threats to move the event from the city. “Dreamforce is important to San Francisco and the city bends over backward to make it a success,” he said. “But San Francisco does not need a federal invasion because you don’t like paying for extra security for Dreamforce.”