Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook and current CEO of Meta Platforms, formerly known as Facebook, Inc., recently made a significant contribution of one million dollars to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund. This gesture was seen as Zuckerberg’s effort to improve relations with the new president, especially in light of his previous acknowledgment to Congress that Facebook had engaged in censorship of its users at the behest of the Biden-Harris administration.
Before finishing the article, let’s first do this: Raise your hand if you think Zuck’s “peace offering” is sincere.
(For the record, no one raised a hand. Don’t ask me how I know; I just do.)
As I reported on August 26, Zuck later said he “regretted” bowing to pressure from the White House, writing in a letter:
I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.
Uh-huh. Zuck’s mea culpa was tantamount to a little kid getting caught by his parents for stealing a cookie or two before dinner, or slipping out the back door to play while he was supposed to be doing his homework.
Noted law professor and political commentator Jonathan Turley wasn’t buying Zuck’s “regret” nonsense either. Turley wrote at the time (emphasis, mine):
Zuckerberg’s sudden regret only came after his company fought for years to conceal the evidence of its work with the government to censor opposing views. Zuckerberg was finally compelled to release the documents by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and the House Judiciary Committee.
As a conservative writer who’s posted content to Facebook for roughly 15 years, I’ve seen Zuck’s playground grow bolder and more blatant in its censorship, often bordering on ridiculousness. So again, please.
Then, the “unthinkable” happened. Unthinkable to the left, that is: Trump won the 2024 presidential election.
Three weeks later, Zuck traveled to Palm Beach, Florida, to meet privately with the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago, reportedly because he “wants to support the renewal.”
Mark Zuckerberg has been very clear about his desire to be a supporter of and a participant in this change that we’re seeing all around America, all around the world with this reform movement that Donald Trump is leading. Mark Zuckerberg, like so many business leaders, understands that President Trump is an agent of change, an agent of prosperity.
OK, one more time: Oh, please.
As exclusively reported by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, while Trump blasted Zuckerberg throughout the 2024 presidential campaign, “ties [between the two] have been improving.”
The contribution and efforts to court the incoming administration are emblematic of the balancing act for technology CEOs whose companies have often been the target of ire from Trump and other Republicans and whose workforces tend to lean strongly to the left.
Now, with Republicans set to take control of the White House and both houses of Congress and calling for new regulation of tech, some executives are adopting a new posture toward Trump.
Again, it’s the “kid who gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar” thing.
And for the record, Zuckerberg and Meta (specifically, Facebook), and other “guilty” tech companies, have not been the target of ire from Trump because their workforces lean strongly to the left; they have been targeted by Trump and other Republicans because they’ve worked against Trump and conservatism, often suppressing or completely censoring content favorable to the former president or critical of the left’s policies or presidential candidates.
In similar news, as the Journal reported:
Ah, groveling is the best. That is, when those doing the groveling before you know why they’re doing it. We know why they’re doing it. And they know we know why they’re doing it.
Meanwhile, the Trump Train rolls on.
