How Mark Zuckerberg is moving to MAGA — after being called a ‘secret Republican’ in 2013

Mark Zuckerberg’s shocking letter to Congress this week calling the Biden administration’s censorship campaign “wrong” may signal a new rightward shift in his politics.

The founder of Facebook, a major donor to the Democratic Party who once supported former President Barack Obamahas been a guest on right-wing podcasts in recent years, where he has rubbed shoulders with MAGA supporters in the UFC and called former President Donald Trump a “badass.”

The billionaire tech mogul has even struck up a friendship with Trump’s longtime ally, UFC president Dana White, who introduced Trump at this year’s 2024 Republican convention and still dreams of organizing a charity cage match between Zuckerberg and his billionaire rival Elon Musk.

Trump himself, in fact, has claimed that Meta’s CEO called him ‘a lot’ during this election campaign for candid, private conversations.

Although the 40-year-old tech billionaire has explicitly refused to endorse a candidate in the 2024 US presidential election, his actions have led many to question his views.

Whatever the truth behind this speculation, Zuckerberg’s 2024 political donations have fallen dramatically as his once-generous interest in giving to progressive causes and candidates wanes.

The apparent shift in his political views was accompanied by a major physical makeover, with Zuckerberg trading in his comfy college-room hoodies and Adidas flip-flops for sun-kissed Gen Z curls and tight shirts with gold chains.

Zuckerberg has also become more enthusiastic about mixed-martial arts training, training with former MMA champions and regularly attending live UFC events, where Trump is also a frequent guest.

In a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on Monday, Zuckerberg said he “regrets” that Facebook and parent company Meta’s other social apps “weren’t more vocal” in their opposition to censorship.

The Biden administration was “wrong” to require Facebook to censor alleged “COVID disinformation” during the pandemic and other posts, he said.

The White Houseaccording to the Meta CEO, ‘repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain content COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed frustration with our teams when we disagreed.’

“We made choices that, given what we know now and the new information,” Zuckerberg continued, “we wouldn’t make today.”

The comments — the Meta CEO’s most direct criticism of the White House yet — came just weeks after Zuckerberg praised Trump for his resilience following the attempted assassination in Pennsylvania last July.

“When I saw Donald Trump stand up after he got shot in the face and put his fist in the air with the American flag, that was one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life,” Zuckerberg, 40, said during an interview with Bloomberg at Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California.

“As an American, on some level it’s hard not to get emotional about that spirit and that fight,” the Facebook founder added.

“And I think that’s why a lot of people like him.”

But Zuckerberg declined to endorse him, stressing: “I have no intention of doing so this time, and that means I will not be endorsing either candidate.”

Zuckerberg has also made it clear that he will not repeat the $400 million in nonprofit contributions he made last cycle this election cycle. to combat election fraud and make polling stations safer during COVID.

Republicans quickly reframed the funding as partisan, saying they saw a pattern in the districts where the money was spent.

“My goal is to be neutral and not play any role whatsoever — or even appear to play any role,” Zuckerberg said this year. “So I don’t plan to make a similar contribution this cycle.”

The Facebook founder’s quiet politics have been the subject of much speculation for more than a decade, including a 2013 essay in the left-leaning magazine The Atlantic, which asked whether Zuckerberg was a “Secret Republican?‘

The article referenced a fundraiser for then-Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie that appears to be tied primarily to Zuckerberg’s charitable efforts for education reform in Newark, New Jersey.

In that initiative, Zuckerberg also praised the city’s Democratic mayor and now the mayor of New Jersey. Senator Cory Booker.

A longtime interest in educational charities also led to the Facebook founder’s most overtly partisan event: a town hall meeting with then-President Obama in 2011.

“I think the Race to the Top activities that you have undertaken are some of the most underrated and important things your administration has ever done,” Zuckerberg told Obama, in a rare appearance in which the tech mogul wore a suit and tie.

Prominent government agencies that oversee big money in politics have long known that Zuckerberg gives to both Republican and Democratic candidates.

For example, during the 2014 midterm elections, Zuckerberg donated to Sen. Booker (D-NJ), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), then-House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), then-House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), then-Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), and then-Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL).

While his charitable work through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which he co-runs with his wife Priscilla Chan, has raised more money for progressive and left-leaning causes, that hasn’t stopped the CEO from protecting conservative positions at Facebook.

According to a Wall Street Journal In his report, Zuckerberg lectured Facebook’s liberal staff on the need to acknowledge that the site’s user base is conservative.

He then went so far as to defend his decisions not to remove Trump’s posts, saying Facebook’s own content moderators said they violated Facebook’s rules.

The policy alienated Democratic leaders, some of whom, such as former Obama administration official David Plouffe, worked for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Tim Sparapani, a lawyer specializing in technology issues who served as Facebook’s first director of public policy, had his own insights into the ideological nature behind Zuckerberg’s reserved demeanor.

“He was completely apolitical,” Sparapani said of Zuckerberg in those early years. “His political views had to be pushed out of him.”