Oct. 14, 2025, 1:08 p.m. ET 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.” Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff tried to backtrack on his calls for National Guard deployment in San Francisco. Bloomberg via Getty Images 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. Explore More