Elon Musk, one of the wealthiest people in the world, called for the imprisonment of a San Francisco supervisor in a message Friday on X, formerly Twitter, the social media app he owns.
In response to an article about legislation proposed by Supervisor Dean Preston that would ban security guards from drawing firearms to protect property, Musk commented that the legislator “should go to prison.”
Preston, a Democratic Socialist, introduced the legislation after a security guard killed Banko Brown, a transgender man, after he allegedly tried to steal snacks from a San Francisco Walgreens.
Preston hit back at Musk in a Friday press release, calling him a “fascist” and touting his own record as a tenants’ rights attorney.
“A billionaire calling for a democratically elected official to be sent to prison for no reason is textbook fascism,” Preston said.
Musk wrote on X last week that he would donate $100,000 to boot Preston from office. In another tweet, he wrote that Preston “is arguably the person most responsible for the destruction of San Francisco.”
In a recent appearance at a local church, Preston said the campaigns against him are part of a “billionaire backlash” due to his progressive policies.
“People can respectfully agree or disagree on policies, but this kind of toxic rhetoric … undermines democracy and has no place in San Francisco,” Preston said in the Friday release.