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Salesforce boss Marc Benioff apologised Friday for suggesting that US President Donald Trump should send National Guard troops to San Francisco.

The apology followed days of backlash against Mr Benioff for a comment he made ahead of his company’s annual Dreamforce conference in the city.

“Having listened closely to my fellow San Franciscans… I do not believe the National Guard is needed to address safety in San Francisco,” he said.

The saga comes amid the Trump administration’s military deployments to US cities – many of which are led by Democrats. Trump on Friday asked the Supreme Court to overrule lower courts that blocked a National Guard deployment in Chicago.

The mood at the usually jubilant Dreamforce convention was dampened by cancelled appearances by San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, as well as comedians Kumail Nanjiani and Ilana Glazer.

Mr Benioff was dealt public rebukes from several Democratic politicians, including California Governor 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 board of the Salesforce Foundation, telling the New York Times that their values “were no longer aligned”.

“I now barely recognize the person I have so long admired,” Conway told the newspaper.

Although Mr Benioff walked back his comments earlier in the week, the apology posted on social media on Friday appeared aimed at putting the controversy to rest.

“I remain deeply grateful to Mayor Lurie, SFPD, and all our partners, and am fully committed to a safer, stronger San Francisco,” Mr Benioff said in his X post.

But he noted that his endorsement of a crackdown “came from an abundance of caution” around Dreamforce security, adding “I sincerely apologize for the concern it caused”.

Sylvia Paull, a veteran Silicon Valley publicist, called Benioff “typical” of many tech CEOs who are not “really political animals” and tend to be transactional.

“It was going to 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 a prolific donor to civic causes in San Francisco over the years.

His name graces one of the most prominent hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In 2018, he funded support for a San Francisco ballot measure aimed at raising corporate taxes to fund homeless services. It passed, despite controversy.

And while he once held a fundraiser for Democratic Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign against Mr Trump, Mr Benioff appeared with the sitting president during his state visit to London last month.

Mr Trump said Wednesday that 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.”

On Friday, in an emergency appeal, the president urged the Supreme Court to permit him to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago. Lower courts have blocked the deployment there thus far, with an appeals court saying such a move would “likely to lead to civil unrest” and “only add fuel to the fire”.

The court ruled that it had “seen no credible evidence that there has been rebellion in the state of Illinois”.

Officials in Illinois and Chicago had sued the Trump administration to block the deployment, arguing it was a “grave intrusion on Illinois’ sovereignty”.

The administration has recently deployed the National Guard to Portland, Oregon in a move that also prompted lawsuits and protests. It previously sent troops to Los Angeles, Washington and parts of Tennessee.

The New York Times also reported this week that Salesforce pitched its services to the Trump administration as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ramps up the hiring of new officers amid a crackdown on immigration.

The BBC has reached out to Salesforce for comment.

Trump administration official David Sacks, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, addressed Mr Benioff in a post on X this week, writing “if the Democrats don’t want you, we would be happy for you to join our team.”

KARACHI: The share of banks financing the budget deficit fell to 74 per cent in the fiscal year that ended in June 2025 from nearly 100 per cent in FY24, resulting in a more than twofold increase in loans to private businesses, according to the central bank report released on Friday.

Banking sector assets expanded to nearly 52.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in FY25, up from 49.1 per cent in the previous year, said Governor’s Annual Report for FY25 of the State Bank of Pakistan.

The assets of the banking sector grew at 15.3 per cent in FY25.“The major driver of the growth in assets of the banking sector remained investments, particularly in government securities,” the SBP’s report said.

“However, owing to lower financing needs due to fiscal consolidation, availability of the non-bank as well as external financing, the share of banks in financing the budget deficit reduced to 74 per cent in FY25, compared to almost 100 per cent in FY24,” it added.

“In this backdrop, the private sector credit (PSC) off-take more-than- doubled during FY25, compared to FY24, as the improvement in economic activity and business confidence amid falling interest rates increased credit demand in the country.”

In contrast to banking sector assets, the sector’s deposit growth slowed, whereas the currency-in-circulation expanded amid rising domestic uncertainty due to regional conflict, the report said.

The disinflationary trend that began in FY24 became more pronounced during FY25. Average National CPI inflation dropped sharply to 4.5 per cent from 23.4 per cent in FY24 and 29.2 per cent in FY23, according to the report.

The SBP said it reduced the policy rate by a cumulative 1,100 basis points (bps) between June 2024 and June 2025. However, due to lingering uncertainties — including sticky core inflation during H2-FY25, evolving global trade tariffs, rising geopolitical tensions, and volatility in administered energy prices — the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) slowed the pace of monetary easing in the second half of FY25.

The report noted that this measured stance facilitated a notable expansion in private sector credit and supported a gradual recovery in economic activity, especially in the latter part of the fiscal year. With the fiscal deficit narrowing to a multi-year low of 5.4 per cent of GDP, and the primary surplus more than doubling to 2.4 per cent, fiscal consolidation supplemented the monetary policy stance to help bring inflation down, the report said.

The significant improvement in the external sector, with the current account balance (CAB) posting a surplus for the first time in over fourteen years. The CAB surplus, combined with increased financial inflows following the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility programme, enabled SBP to conduct significant foreign exchange purchases from the interbank market that strengthened foreign exchange reserves and enhanced FX market stability.

The report highlights several measures taken by the SBP as part of its tertiary objective to support the government’s economic policy objectives. In particular, it highlights various exchange company reforms and administrative measures to boost workers’ remittances — such as enhanced incentives for banks, and targeted outreach to the diaspora — as well as measures to facilitate exporters, particularly in the IT sector, through enhanced retention limits to promote reinvestment and innovation.

The report notes the establishment of Raast Payments Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd to oversee the operations and governance of the Raast system, the launch of the enhanced PRISM+ settlement system with integrated central securities depository features, and the introduction of a regulatory sandbox framework for payment innovation. Additionally, the SBP implemented digital payment acceptance solutions nationwide along with the further digitisation of government payments.