In a sharp departure from his past liberal stances, Benioff told the outlet he “fully” supports the president and thinks the National Guard should be deployed to San Francisco. “We don’t have enough cops, so if they can be cops, I’m all for it,” he said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has a long relationship with Marc Benioff, the chief executive of Salesforce, that dates back to a different era in San Francisco.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has come under fire after calling on the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops to combat crime in his home city of San Francisco, with Matt Dorsey, a Democratic member of the city’s Board of Supervisors, branding it a “slap in the face.”

After a week of controversy, that has at times threatened to overshadow his company’s trademark Dreamforce conference, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has apologized for his comments about deploying the National Guard to San Francisco.

Benioff’s comments sparked a swift backlash, including within his circle. Bloomberg reported that prominent venture capitalist Ron Conway quit the Salesforce Foundation board over Benioff’s Trump comments. CNN has reached out to Salesforce to confirm the departure.

Benioff’s comments about the National Guard — which were echoed over the weekend by Tesla CEO and major Trump donor Elon Musk — came in the wake of Trump deploying National Guard troops to Los Angeles, Memphis and Washington, D.C. Trump has also threatened to do so in Portland and Chicago, but has so far been blocked by federal courts.

The Salesforce CEO had called for President Trump to send the National Guard to San Francisco.

Salesforce CEO backtracks on troops for SF streets after losing longtime ally Ron Conway, but new revelations about ICE proposals raise more questions.