Zuckerberg dines with Trump in Mar-a-Lago
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Donald Trump had dinner with CEO of Meta on Wednesday Mark Zuckerberg at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, which brought together the Facebook founder and the former president, who was once banned from that social network.
Stephen Miller, who has been named deputy chief of staff for Trump’s second term, said Zuckerberg, like other business leaders, wants to support Trump’s economic plans. The tech CEO has tried to change the perception of his company on the right after a rocky relationship with Trump.
“Mark obviously has his own interest, he has his own company and he has his own agenda,” Miller said in an interview on Fox News about the meeting. “But he has made it clear that he wants to support America’s national renewal under Trump’s leadership.”
A spokesperson for Meta confirmed that Zuckerberg and Trump met on Wednesday and said he was invited to dinner with the newly elected president and other members of his team to discuss the incoming administration.
Trump was Facebook kicked off following the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The company reinstated his account in early 2023.
During the 2024 campaign, Zuckerberg did not endorse a candidate for president.
Zuckerberg has since taken a more positive stance toward Trump. Earlier this year, he praised Trump’s response to his first assassination attempt, calling it “badass.” Zuckerberg also complained that senior Biden administration officials are pressuring Facebook to “censor” some COVID-19 content during the pandemic.
Yet Trump had continued to publicly attack Zuckerberg in recent months. In July, he posted a message on his own social network Truth Social threatening to send election fraudsters to jail in part by mentioning a nickname he used for Meta’s CEO. “ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!” Trump wrote.
The Thanksgiving evening visit also comes as technology mogul Elon Musk has become more influential in Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, contributing an estimated $200 million to Trump’s election through his political action committee. Musk is the billionaire owner of the social network X, a competitor of Meta.
Musk has spent a lot of time at Mar-a-Lago since the election, and Trump picked him to lead an outside advisory panel known as the “Government Efficiency Department ” to identify waste with Vivek Ramaswamy, a venture capitalist and former Republican Party presidential candidate.