Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday, The New York Times first reported, citing two sources briefed on the meeting.
The meeting was confirmed by Meta, which said in a statement, “It’s an important time for the future of American Innovation. Mark was grateful for the invitation to join President Trump for dinner and the opportunity to meet with members of his team about the incoming Administration.”
It’s the latest twist in Trump’s relationship with Zuckerberg, which has seen its share of tensions over the last several years.
The president-elect’s vitriol toward Zuckerberg ratcheted up after Facebook banned Trump in the wake of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In July 2021, Trump sued Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube—as well as the three companies’ CEOs—alleging that they had engaged in “censorship” by banning his account after the Capitol riot.
In March, Trump weighed in on legislative efforts to ban TikTok in the U.S., saying that they would work out in Zuckerberg’s favor.
“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!”
Brandon Bell/Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP/Getty Images
Trump has also accused Zuckerberg of personally conspiring against him during the 2020 election and repeatedly threatened to jail him.
Zuckerberg “would come to the Oval Office to see me,” Trump wrote in his book Save America, which was released in September. “He would bring his very nice wife to dinners, be as nice as anyone could be, while always plotting to install shameful Lock Boxes in a true PLOT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.”
Trump was referring to a $419 million donation Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, made to two nonprofits that issued grants to election offices across the country to help fund election infrastructure.
The president-elect went on to threaten to imprison Zuckerberg, writing: “He told me there was nobody like Trump on Facebook. But at the same time, and for whatever reason, steered it against me. We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison — as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election.”
In July, Trump referred to Zuckerberg as “Zuckerbucks,” writing on his social media platform that “if I’m elected President, we will pursue Election Fraudsters at levels never seen before, and they will be sent to prison for long periods of time. We already know who you are. DON’T DO IT! ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!”
Two months later, Trump claimed that Zuckerberg reached out to him following the first assassination attempt against Trump in July.
“Mark Zuckerberg called up and said, ‘I’ve never supported a Republican before, but there’s no way I can vote for a Democrat in this election,'” Trump told New York Magazine in a wide-ranging interview in September. “He’s a guy that, his parents, everybody was always Democrat. He said, ‘I will never vote for the people running against you after watching what you did.'”
Asked about Trump’s claim, a Meta spokesperson said at the time that “as Mark has said publicly, he’s not endorsing anybody in this race and has not communicated to anybody how he intends to vote.”
Zuckerberg did, however, publicly praise Trump for raising his fist after the assassination attempt, calling it “one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“At some level as an American, it’s hard to not, like, get kind of emotional about that spirit and that fight,” Zuckerberg told Bloomberg in a July 24 interview. “And I think that’s why a lot of people like the guy.”
The Meta CEO joined a slew of other business and tech moguls in congratulating Trump after he won the 2024 U.S. election.
“Congratulations to President Trump on a decisive victory. We have great opportunities ahead of us as a country,” Zuckerberg wrote on Threads. “Looking forward to working with you and your administration.”
Update 11/27/24, 9:28 p.m.: This article has been updated with further information.
