When Donald Trump announced Thursday he was calling off his plan to send federal law enforcement into San Francisco, he credited a call with Mayor Daniel Lurie for changing his mind.
But he also called out two special “friends of mine who live in the area” who talked him out of it: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.
“Great people like Jensen Huang, Marc Benioff, and others have called saying that the future of San Francisco is great,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social (opens in new tab). “They want to give it a ‘shot.’ Therefore, we will not surge San Francisco on Saturday. Stay tuned!”
Benioff had, of course, helped kick the National Guard discourse into high gear by telling the “New York Times” (opens in new tab) almost two weeks ago that he supported Trump sending them in. He later doubled down in an interview with The Standard before reversing course after backlash from fellow billionaires like Laurene Powell Jobs and Ron Conway, saying he “sincerely apologize[d] (opens in new tab)” for the concern his comments caused.
Huang, meanwhile, had not made any public comments on the situation. The billionaire, who owns a $38-million mansion (opens in new tab) in Presidio Heights, has been doubling down on San Francisco lately, buying more office space for Nvidia and chipping in to save the struggling California College of Arts.
Huang has also gained increasing prominence in Washington, most notably securing a deal to allow Nvidia to export its chips to China.
Representatives for Nvidia declined to comment.
Though it was unclear who the “others” were who reached Trump directly, many influential San Franciscans tried to make the case that he did not need to send in the feds — in one case by appearing on his favorite television channel. Trevor Traina, a member of a prominent San Francisco family and an ambassador to Austria under the first Trump administration, appeared on Fox News Tuesday to suggest sending in the National Guard was unnecessary.
Asked whether he was involved in conversations with the president on the issue, Traina demurred, telling The Standard via text: “The voters in SF picked leaders to fix these problems. And they deserve the chance to do so.”
Even former Fox talk show host and San Mateo native Greg Gutfeld defended the city earlier this week, saying on the network that “great things are happening in San Francisco,” including an increase in the number of police officers and arrests of repeat offenders. He also praised Lurie, saying he is doing a “great job.”
“At least there’s a Democrat mayor doing something,” he added.