Comedians Kumail Nanjiani and Ilana Glazer dropped out of performing at Salesforce’s annual tech conference this week after the company’s chief executive Marc Benioff made controversial remarks that showed his support for President Trump.
Last week, Benioff told the New York Times he thought Trump should deploy the National Guard to reduce crime in San Francisco, comments that sparked backlash from Silicon Valley philanthropists and Democrats.
On Friday, Benioff completely walked back his remarks and apologized.
“I do not believe the National Guard is needed to address safety in San Francisco,” he wrote on social media site X. “My earlier comment came from an abundance of caution around the event, and I sincerely apologize for the concern it caused.”
Salesforce, a software company based in San Francisco, provides a platform that businesses use to manage customer data and track sales. The company confirmed the comedians dropped out but the entertainers haven’t said publicly what prompted the last-minute cancellation. A source close to the company told the San Francisco Chronicle that Nanjiani became ill and that led to his scheduled opener Glazer to cancel as well.
Nanjiani and Glazer haven’t publicly spoken out about Benioff’s remarks about the National Guard.
Both comedians, though, have been critical of Trump in the past and his anti-immigrant rhetoric. Earlier this year, Glazer spoke at a “No Kings” protest, which organizers say is to meant fight back against authoritarian policies pushed by Trump and his administration. This week, she promoted the next series of demonstrations, scheduled to take place on Oct. 18, stating it wasn’t a partisan issue on Instagram.
The San Francisco Standard reported earlier on the cancellation.
Benioff has grappled with a growing backlash since he made comments about Trump and the National Guard. The controversy overshadowed Dreamforce, a conference in San Francisco that featured well-known speakers including tech executives, government officials and entertainers.
Nanjiani played Dinesh in the HBO series “Silicon Valley” and co-wrote and starred in the Oscar-nominated 2017 film “The Big Sick.” Glazer co-created and starred in the Comedy Central series “Broad City” and the 2024 comedy film “Babes.”
In their absence, comedian David Spade performed at Dreamforce on Thursday afternoon, closing out the conference.
Ahead of the event, which ended on Thursday, Benioff appeared to dial back his remarks.
On social media site X, he said he was trying to make a point about making the conference as safe as possible.
“Keeping San Francisco safe is, first and foremost, the responsibility of our city and state leaders,” he wrote on X. Benioff also said he’s donating an extra $1 million to fund larger hiring bonuses for new police officers.
Benioff, who has previously said he’s an independent and was once a Republican, has backed Democrats and supported liberal causes such as a business tax for homeless services. But he’s also been critical of public safety in San Francisco and has threatened to move Dreamforce from San Francisco to Las Vegas.
The conference brings nearly 50,000 people to the city, generates $130 million in revenue for San Francisco and creates 35,000 local jobs, according to Salesforce. The company announced earlier this week it was investing $15 billion in San Francisco over five years to advance artificial intelligence.
On Thursday, prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist and Democratic donor Ron Conway resigned from the Salesforce Foundation board. In an email first viewed by the New York Times, Conway told Benioff that he “now barely recognize the person I have so long admired.”
“Your obsession with and constant annual threats to move Dreamforce to Las Vegas is ironic, since it is a fact that Las Vegas has a higher rate of violent crime than San Francisco,” Conway wrote in the email. “San Francisco does not need a federal invasion because you don’t like paying for extra security for Dreamforce.”
Conway, founder and managing partner of SV Angel, is widely regarded as the “Godfather of Silicon Valley” because of his early investments in major tech companies such as Google, Facebook and PayPal. SV Angel didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
A Salesforce spokesperson said in a statement they have “deep gratitude for Ron Conway and his incredible contributions to the Salesforce Foundation Board for over a decade.”
On Friday, entrepreneur and philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs published an essay in the Wall Street Journal citing some of Benioff’s earlier remarks and claims that no one has given more to San Francisco. The widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs also founded and heads the philanthropic organization, Emerson Collective.
“The message beneath that comment was unmistakable: In his eyes, generosity is an auction—and policy is the prize awarded to the highest bidder,” she wrote. “But giving that expects control is anything but generous.”
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