Elon Musk joined Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff in his calls for federal troops to be deployed to San Francisco – even as Benioff tried to backtrack on his comments.
In several posts on X to his 227 million followers, Musk – who uprooted his home and Tesla’s headquarters from California to Texas but still has business operations on the West Coast – wrote that deploying the feds to San Francisco would be “the only solution at this point” since “nothing else has or will work.”
The world’s richest man — who had a high-profile role in the White House at the start of the Trump administration — also slammed the city as a “drug zombie apocalypse.”
The missives came Sunday after Benioff said National Guard troops could help fight crime in San Francisco.
“We don’t have enough cops, so if they can be cops, I’m all for it,” he told the New York Times in an interview published Friday.
Benioff has long been known for his liberal political slant and heavy investments in San Francisco. But during the interview, he appeared to change his tune – trumpeting his support for President Trump and the recent controversial deployments of National Guard troops.
Since the summer, Trump has sent National Guard forces to Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and Memphis, Tenn., prompting waves of protests and legal action from local Dem officials.
Most of the troops have been pulled from LA, but he has promised to send federal forces to Portland and Chicago.
Benioff’s interview quickly stirred backlash as Salesforce prepared to welcome about 50,000 visitors to San Francisco for its annual Dreamforce conference, which started Tuesday and lasts through Thursday.
The exec tried to backtrack on his comments, praising San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie in a social media post on Sunday and remarking: “Keeping San Francisco safe is, first and foremost, the responsibility of our city and state leaders.”
Musk quickly weighed in on the matter, arguing that federal troops are needed to crack down on crime in San Francisco.
Several of Musk’s companies have close ties to the city. His AI startup, xAI, has a large San Francisco office, and Neuralink – his brain-computer chip firm – recently leased a large property in the city.
Tesla’s engineering headquarters are still in Palo Alto, near San Francisco.
Representatives for Musk and for Benioff’s company, Salesforce, did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
During his interview with The Times, Benioff reportedly complained – while en route to San Francisco on his private plane – that he has to pay for hundreds of off-duty officers to work at the Moscone Center during the Dreamforce convention.
He said San Francisco needs to “re-fund” the police, as the city has struggled to recruit and hold onto officers.
Benioff said the city should add 1,000 cops to the existing police force of about 1,500.
“You’ll see. When you walk through San Francisco next week, there will be cops on every corner,” he was quoted as saying. “That’s how it used to be.”
In his social media post on Sunday, Benioff called himself a “fourth-generation San Franciscan” – though he has mostly lived in Hawaii since the pandemic, according to the Times.
Mayor Lurie wrote in a Sunday post on X that “crime is down 30% and tent encampments are at an all-time low.”
He did not comment on Benioff’s remarks or the Dreamforce convention, though he noted that tens of thousands of people are coming to the city “for concerts, Fleet Week, and the Italian Heritage Parade.”
“This is what a world-class city looks like, and it all starts with public safety,” the mayor added. “San Francisco is on the rise.”
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