When Mark Zuckerberg has dinner with Donald Trump

Photo: Mark Schiefelbein Associated Press Mark Zuckerberg, during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, on January 31, in Washington

Adriana Gomez Licon – Associated Press in Fort Lauderdale

Published yesterday at 9:03 a.m.

• United States

Donald Trump had dinner Wednesday with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the president-elect's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. The event brought together the Facebook founder and the former president who was banned from the social network.

Stephen Miller, who has been named deputy chief of staff for Mr. Trump’s second term, said Mr. Zuckerberg, like other business leaders, wants to support Donald Trump’s economic plans. The tech mogul is seeking to improve the right-wing perception of his company after a rocky relationship with President Trump.

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“Mark, obviously, he has his own interests, and he has his own business and he has his own agenda,” Mr. Miller said in an interview on Fox News about the meeting. “But he made it clear that he wants to support the national renewal of America under Trump.”

A Meta spokesman confirmed that Messrs. Zuckerberg and Trump met Wednesday, saying he had been invited to have dinner with the president-elect and other members of his team to discuss the new administration.

Donald Trump was kicked off Facebook after the events of January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol. The company reinstated his account in early 2023.

During the 2024 campaign, Mr. Zuckerberg did not endorse any presidential candidate.

Mark Zuckerberg has since taken a more positive stance toward Mr. Trump. Earlier this year, he praised Mr. Trump’s response to the first assassination attempt on his life as “badass.” Mr. Zuckerberg has also complained that senior officials in the Biden administration have pressured Facebook to censor some COVID-19-related content during the pandemic.

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Yet in recent months, Donald Trump has continued to publicly attack Mr. Zuckerberg. In July, he posted a message on his own network, Truth Social, threatening to send election fraudsters to jail, in part by citing a nickname he had used for the CEO of Meta. “ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!” Mr. Trump wrote.

The Thanksgiving Eve visit comes as tech giant Elon Musk has taken a prominent place in the president-elect’s political movement. Mr. Musk also contributed $200 million through his political action committee to help elect Mr. Trump. Musk is the billionaire owner of the social network X, a competitor to Meta.

Mr. Musk has spent a lot of time at Mar-a-Lago since the election, and Mr. Trump has tapped him to lead an outside advisory group known as the “Department of Government Efficiency” to identify wasteful government spending with Vivek Ramaswamy, an investor and former Republican presidential candidate.