Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta donates $1 million to Trump Fund
Meta has donated $1 million to the inaugural fundraiser for Donald Trump, another sign of the tech giant’s boss Mark Zuckerberg’s effort to build ties with the president-elect.
Trump has previously been highly critical of Mr Zuckerberg and Facebook – he called the platform “anti-Trump” in 2017.
but couple Dine at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago After a meeting at the resort in November, Mr. Zuckerberg described himself as “grateful.”
The Inaugural Fund is used to pay for events and activities when a new president takes office – some consider this an attempt to curry favor with the new administration.
Meta is not believed to have made a similar donation to President Joe Biden’s inaugural fund in 2020 or Trump’s previous such fund in 2016.
The donation was confirmed by the BBC’s US media partner CBS on Wednesday first reported By Wall Street Journal.
The BBC has contacted Meta for comment.
Trump will be sworn in as the 47th US President on January 20.
Relations between Mr Trump and Mr Zuckerberg have historically been less cordial.
They became particularly sour when Facebook and Instagram suspended the former president’s accounts in 2021 after he said he praised those involved in the violence at the Capitol on January 6.
Since then, Trump has waged a war of words against meta-calling Facebook “Enemy of the people” in March.,
He said a law under which TikTok would be banned in the US unless its parent company ByteDance sells it would give Facebook an unfair advantage.
In August, Mr. Zuckerberg said in a letter to Republican lawmakers He regrets bowing to pressure from the Biden administration “Censoring” some Facebook and Instagram content during the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Trump wrote in a book published in September that Mr Zuckerberg would “spend the rest of his life in prison” if he tried to interfere in the 2024 election.
But it appears that the newly elected President has softened his stance.
He said in a podcast in October that it was “good” that Mr Zuckerberg was “staying out of the election”, and thanked him for a personal phone call after he faced an assassination attempt.
Still, Mr. Zuckerberg is much less close to Trump than fellow tech giant Elon Musk.
The owner of Tesla and X has been dubbed Trump’s “First Buddy” due to his extensive donations to his campaign.
Due to this, Mr. Musk has been made a new in-charge Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE),
There has been no such rapprochement between Mr Musk and Mr Zuckerberg – although cage fighting was once discussed between them seems to be closing now,
