Salesforce is welcoming tens of thousands of people to San Francisco for its annual Dreamforce conference. Meanwhile, CEO Marc Benioff found himself at the center of a local controversy in San Francisco over a national issue. In an interview published Friday, Benioff seemed eager for President Trump to send federal troops to San Francisco, where his company is headquartered.
The announcement plunged him into a national debate over whether Trump should deploy the National Guard to cities he has accused of being run by Democrats.
The Trump administration has recently deployed the National Guard to Portland and Chicago, a move that sparked protests and legal action.
"Our police are understaffed, so if federal troops can serve as police officers, I'm all for it," Benioff said.
Later, Benioff softened his stance. He posted on the social platform X on Sunday that safety "is first and foremost the responsibility of our city and state leadership." But at this time, a heated online discussion had already begun.
Tesla CEO Musk said that to deal with San Francisco's crime problem, federal government intervention is needed. On Sunday, he posted on his social platform The day before, Musk also described downtown San Francisco as a "drug zombie apocalypse" (here is Musk's exaggerated statement, referring to the chaos caused by drug problems in downtown San Francisco).
Despite moving to Texas, Musk still has important business presence in San Francisco and surrounding areas. His artificial intelligence startup xA has a large office in San Francisco; his brain-computer interface company Neuralink also recently leased a large property in South San Francisco. While Tesla has moved its headquarters to Texas, the automaker's engineering headquarters remain in Palo Alto, south of San Francisco.
Musk's call for sending in U.S. troops was in response to a social media post by Tom Wolfe. Tom Wolfe calls himself “a former homeless man in San Francisco recovering from drug addiction” and an “advocate for drug rehabilitation.”
“If you want to stop federal troops from moving into San Francisco, get rid of the organized drug dealers — that’ll solve 80 percent of the problem,” Wolfe wrote. “If you don’t, you’ll suffer the consequences.”