Elon Musk, shown at the White House in February, has backed Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s call for federal troops in San Francisco.
Alex Brandon/Associated Press
Elon Musk has backed Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s call for federal troops to be sent to San Francisco, a city that has become the latest flash point in President Donald Trump’s escalating campaign to deploy the National Guard to Democratic-led cities.
“It’s the only solution at this point,” Musk wrote Sunday on X. “Nothing else has or will work.”
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Musk’s endorsement came in response to a post by T. Wolf, a recovery advocate and former homeless resident, who cited data showing more than 4,300 overdose deaths since 2020 and 90 kilograms of fentanyl seized by the San Francisco Police Department in the past year.
Wolf referenced a March 2025 survey by the conservative Voice of San Francisco, which found that 61% of voters support federal intervention to deport undocumented fentanyl dealers. When those who “somewhat agree” are included, the total rises to 83%.
“Pretty much 80% of San Francisco wants federal intervention on deporting drug dealers,” Wolf wrote. “That’s how insane it’s been here.”
A group leaves Willow Street in the Tenderloin after being asked by police to vacate the area in September.
Manuel Orbegozo/For the S.F. Chronicle
The Voice of San Francisco framed the survey as a sign of “collective exasperation” with local policies blamed for leniency toward fentanyl traffickers and addiction-related crime. The article argued that “even in a city renowned for its bleeding heart, there is a breaking point.”
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On Saturday night, Musk revisited an old dispute with Benioff over Proposition C, the 2018 tax measure that raised millions from large corporations to fund homelessness services in San Francisco.
“Benioff needs to repeal the catastrophic Prop C that he pushed,” Musk wrote on X, referring to the initiative Benioff personally backed with more than $7 million in donations. The two tech leaders have long clashed over the measure — Musk calling it a drag on the city’s economy, and Benioff defending it as a moral commitment to help San Francisco’s most vulnerable residents.That renewed jab set the stage for Musk’s unexpected show of alignment with Benioff after their long history of public disagreements.
Musk’s remarks followed Benioff’s controversial comments to the New York Times on Friday, in which the Salesforce CEO urged Trump to deploy the National Guard to the city to “refund the police.”
“We don’t have enough cops, so if they can be cops, I’m all for it,” Benioff said of the National Guard soldiers.
The statement — made aboard his private plane — sparked swift backlash from California Democrats and San Francisco leaders.
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District Attorney Brooke Jenkins accused Trump and his allies of turning public safety into “government-sponsored violence,” while state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, called Benioff’s comments “the opposite” of what the city needs.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, shown speaking at Dreamforce in San Francisco last year, says the city needs federal troops to combat crime, including the fentanyl epidemic.
Brontë Wittpenn/S.F. Chronicle
Benioff, whose company’s Dreamforce convention begins Tuesday at Moscone Center, had previously said he may pull the event out of San Francisco due to crime but reaffirmed his commitment to the city last year.
“I’m really excited for Dreamforce this week,” Benioff said in a lengthy X post Sunday in which he took a softer stance, praising the efforts of Mayor Daniel Lurie and the city’s police department. “As a fourth-generation San Franciscan — and ever since we started Salesforce here 26 years ago — I’ve always believed that we make progress for our city when we work together across every level of leadership and every part of our community, especially when it comes to public safety. Keeping San Francisco safe is, first and foremost, the responsibility of our city and state leaders.”
I’m really excited for Dreamforce this week! As a fourth-generation San Franciscan — and ever since we started Salesforce here 26 years ago — I’ve always believed that we make progress for our city when we work together across every level of leadership and every part of our…
— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) October 12, 2025
Once a prominent liberal donor, Benioff has recently aligned himself with Trump and other Silicon Valley figures seeking closer ties to the White House.
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In recent months, several industry leaders — including Apple’s Tim Cook, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg — have made concerted efforts to maintain cordial relations with the Trump White House.
More than two dozen prominent tech figures attended a private dinner at the White House earlier this fall, signaling a new phase of pragmatic engagement between the tech sector and the administration.
The Times interview followed months of tension over Trump’s federal troop deployments in other blue-state cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., many of which have triggered legal challenges.
Lurie’s administration pushed back against claims of a city in crisis, citing a nearly 30% drop in crime citywide and the lowest rates “in decades.”
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie listens as District Attorney Brooke Jenkins discusses the fentanyl epidemic in January.
Lea Suzuki/S.F. Chronicle
According to a July San Francisco Chronicle analysis, reported violent crime fell 19% and property crime 25% in the first half of 2025, continuing historic declines from the previous year.
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Still, frustration persists over the fentanyl epidemic, which has killed thousands even as overall violence wanes. The tension between those calling for stronger enforcement and those warning against federal overreach highlights San Francisco’s political and cultural divide.
For Musk, the comments mark another shift toward conservative activism.
In recent weeks, he has called for a boycott of Los Gatos streaming giant Netflix over a transgender character even as he expanded his Neuralink operations back into the Bay Area.
Whether Trump follows through on sending troops to San Francisco remains uncertain.
Federal judges have already blocked several of his recent deployments as violations of the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement.