As Salesforce gears up for its massive Dreamforce conference this week, CEO Marc Benioff just dropped a political bombshell that's got Silicon Valley buzzing. His call for federal troops in San Francisco - quickly followed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk's characterization of downtown as a 'drug zombie apocalypse' - has tech leaders picking sides in a heated debate about urban crime that's spilling over into the industry's biggest annual gathering.
The timing couldn't be more awkward for Salesforce. Just as tens of thousands of tech professionals prepare to descend on downtown San Francisco for Dreamforce - the company's flagship conference running Tuesday through Thursday - CEO Marc Benioff found himself at the center of a political firestorm that's dividing Silicon Valley.
It started with what seemed like an off-hand comment to The New York Times. 'We don't have enough cops, so if they can be cops, I'm all for it,' Benioff said Friday, referring to potential federal troops. The statement inserted Salesforce directly into President Trump's controversial deployment of National Guard units to Democrat-led cities.
But if Benioff thought he could quietly walk back those comments, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had other plans. Over the weekend, Musk unleashed a series of posts on his X platform that escalated the debate dramatically. He called federal intervention 'the only solution at this point' and described downtown San Francisco as a 'drug zombie apocalypse.'
Musk's timing is particularly pointed. While Tesla relocated its headquarters to Texas, the company maintains its engineering hub in nearby Palo Alto. More importantly, his AI startup xAI operates a major office in San Francisco, and Neuralink recently signed a lease in South San Francisco. Musk isn't just throwing stones from afar - he's got significant business interests at stake.
The controversy exploded across social media when Musk amplified a post from Tom Wolf, a local addiction recovery advocate, to his 227 million X followers. Wolf's message was blunt: 'If you want to keep federal troops out of San Francisco, remove the organized drug dealers and 80% of the problem goes away.'
Local officials weren't having it. San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins fired back on X, saying she 'can't be silent any longer.' She accused the Trump administration of turning public safety into 'government sponsored violence' and warned she wouldn't hesitate to prosecute anyone using excessive force.
