Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is using $1 million to mend fences with President-elect Donald Trump. The social media company Trump has called a “true Enemy of the People” donated the sum to his inaugural fund.
The company behind Facebook confirmed the donation to multiple outlets. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report it.
It’s a break from tradition for Meta, which did not donate to Trump’s first inauguration nor President Joe Biden’s.
The company would not expand further on the million-dollar gift, but The Wall Street Journal reported that Meta told Trump aides about the planned donation before a dinner last month between Zuckerberg and Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
Zuckerberg is navigating a years-long rift with the incoming president, sparked in part by a $400 million donation in 2020 from Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. The money went to local and state governments to help with election infrastructure during the pandemic.
Trump accused them of using the money to boost Democratic turnout.
“We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison – as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election,” Trump wrote in his book, “Save America.”
After Jan. 6, 2021, Meta suspended Trump from its platforms for two years. A year into his suspension, Trump launched Truth Social. No longer just rich on real estate, Trump’s stake in Trump Media has doubled his net worth.
The president-elect’s fractured relationship with Instagram-owner Meta has also inspired him to flip the script on TikTok.
“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!”
But that vitriol is starting to smooth out. In July 2024, Zuckerberg expressed admiration for Trump.
“On a personal note, seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag is one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life,” Zuckerberg told Bloomberg. “On some level, as an American, it’s hard to not get kind of emotional about that spirit and that fight, and I think that that’s why a lot of people like the guy.”
Then in August 2024, Zuckerberg openly criticized Democrats.
“In 2021, the Biden Administration … repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content,” Zuckerberg said in written testimony to Congress. “Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take the content down … the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.”
Zuckerberg’s relationship building comes as a judge ruled a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit against Meta can go to trial. The case first started in the final weeks of Trump’s first term and accuses Meta of holding an illegal monopoly over social media.
Trump just made his choice for the next chair of the FTC. Andrew Ferguson promises to be tough on Big Tech.
Zuckerberg isn’t the only one courting Trump’s favor. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who said his rocket company, Blue Origin, will one day be bigger than Amazon, has posted on X only twice in 2024. The first post came after the assassination attempt on Trump, to say the “former president showed tremendous grace and courage.” The second post came after the election, to congratulate Trump on his “extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory.”
“I’m actually very optimistic this time around,” Bezos told DealBook in December 2024 about Trump’s second term. “He seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. And my point of view, if I can help him do that, I’m going to help him.”
The billionaire most involved in helping Trump with that is Bezos’ biggest competitor in the space race, Elon Musk.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Google CEO Sundar Pichai all publicly congratulated Trump on his election victory and all expressed desire to work with his administration.
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