Owen Klinsky
Meta donated $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The donation comes amid a thaw in relations between Trump and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, with Zuckerberg paying a visit to Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida two weeks ago, according to The WSJ. Zuckerberg and Meta did not donate to Trump’s inaugural fund in 2017 or to President Biden’s fund in 2021.
Meta banned Trump from posting following the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riots. Meanwhile, Trump stated in a book in August that Zuckerberg would “spend the rest of his life in prison” if he tried to influence the 2024 election.
However, Zuckerberg and Trump’s relationship appears to be on the mend as of late, with the Meta CEO describing Trump’s response to the Butler, Pennsylvania assassination attempt as “one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life” in July, and Trump stating in an October interview that he likes Zuckerberg “much better now,” and believed the tech mogul was “staying out of the election.”
Zuckerberg wrote a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan in August admitting the Biden-Harris administration pressured Meta to censor content.
“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,” Zuckerberg wrote. “I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today.”
Zuckerberg also apologized in the letter for censoring the New York Post’s 2020 Hunter Biden laptop story. Shortly after the apology, an October House Judiciary report revealed Meta executives planned to bury the New York Post report in order to gain favor with the incoming Biden-Harris administration.
“Obviously, our calls on this [New York Post story] could colour the way an incoming Biden administration views us more than almost anything else,” a WhatsApp message from Facebook’s then-Vice President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, stated on the same day as the Post published its first expose on Hunter Biden’s foreign ties, according to the report.
A slew of Silicon Valley moguls, including Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos and Zuckerberg, congratulated Trump following his Nov. 5 election win.
“Congratulations to President Trump on a decisive victory,” Zuckerberg stated on Instagram Threads. “We have great opportunities ahead of us as a country. Looking forward to working with you and your administration.”
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
