Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff apologized on Friday for suggesting that US President Donald Trump send National Guard troops to San Francisco.
The apology follows days of backlash against Mr Benioff for comments he made ahead of his company's annual Dreamforce conference in the city.
“Having listened carefully to my fellow San Franciscans … I do not believe the National Guard is necessary to keep San Francisco safe,” he said.
The saga comes as the Trump administration deploys military forces to U.S. cities, many of them led by Democrats. Trump on Friday asked the Supreme Court to overturn lower courts' decisions that blocked the deployment of the National Guard to Chicago.
The mood at the usually jubilant Dreamforce convention was dampened by canceled appearances by San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and comedians Kumail Nanjiani and Ilana Glazer.
Mr. Benioff has received public rebukes from several Democratic politicians, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who once served as mayor of San Francisco and appeared on stage with Mr. Benioff at last year's convention.
On Thursday, venture capitalist Ron Conway resigned from the Salesforce Foundation's board of directors, telling the New York Times that their values ”no longer align.”
“Now I barely recognize the man I admired for so long,” Conway told the newspaper.
Although Mr Benioff walked back his comments earlier in the week, an apology posted on social media on Friday appeared aimed at ending the controversy.
“I remain deeply grateful to Mayor Lurie, San Francisco and all of our partners, and am fully committed to a safer and stronger San Francisco,” Mr. Benioff said in his X-post.
But he noted that his approval of the crackdown “stems from an abundance of caution” regarding Dreamforce's security, adding: “I sincerely apologize for the concern this has caused.”
Sylvia Poll, a veteran Silicon Valley publicist, called Benioff “typical” of many tech CEOs who are not “real political animals” and tend to be transactional.
“It will hurt his sales.”
And that's not all.
“He's afraid he's going to lose his legacy,” she said of his apology.
Mr. Benioff, who also owns Time magazine, has been an active donor to civic causes in San Francisco for many years.
His name adorns one of the most famous hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In 2018, he financed a ballot initiative in San Francisco to raise corporate taxes to fund homeless services. It passed despite the controversy.
And while he once held a fundraiser for Democrat Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign against Trump, Benioff appeared alongside the sitting president during his state visit to London last month.
On Wednesday, Trump said San Francisco was one of the next targets on his list of places where he plans to deploy the National Guard, calling the city a “mess.”
In an emergency appeal Friday, the president called on the Supreme Court to allow him to station National Guard troops in Chicago. Lower courts blocked the placement For now, the appeals court said such a move would “likely lead to civil unrest” and would “only add fuel to the fire.”
The court ruled that it “saw no credible evidence that there was an insurrection in the State of Illinois.”
Officials in Illinois and Chicago sued the Trump administration to block the deployment of troops, arguing it was a “serious assault on Illinois' sovereignty.”
The administration has recently sent the National Guard to Portland, Oregon. The move also sparked lawsuits and protests. He previously sent troops to Los Angeles, Washington and parts of Tennessee.
The New York Times also reported this week that Salesforce has offered its services to the Trump administration as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ramps up hiring of new officers amid a crackdown on immigration.
The BBC has approached Salesforce for comment.
Trump administration spokesman David Sachs, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, reached out to Mr. Benioff in a post on X this week, writing: “If the Democrats don’t want you, we’d love for you to join our team.”
