Mark Zuckerberg called former President Donald Trump “incredible” for his response to last weekend’s assassination attempt, but stopped short of endorsing him in the 2024 presidential election.
The president of social networking giant Meta, who has a net worth of $167 billion according to Forbes magazine, praised Trump’s strength after surviving an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally over the weekend that left him bleeding from the ears.
“Watching Donald Trump stand up after getting shot in the face and raise the American flag and pump his fist in the air was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen,” Zuckerberg said. He spoke to Bloomberg in an interview on Thursday..
“In a way, as an American, it’s hard not to identify with that spirit and that fighting spirit. I think that’s why so many people like him.”
The praise came despite a long-running feud between the social media giant and the former president.
Trump’s Facebook posts were frequently flagged for containing misinformation and violating Meta’s rules, and Meta subsequently suspended Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts for two years following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, prompting Trump to launch Truth Social, a Trump-centric remake of X.
At the time, Zuckerberg posted that Trump was using his account to “disrupt the peaceful and lawful transition of power” to President Joe Biden.
But now Zuckerberg says he has “no plans” to get involved in elections and wants to depoliticize Facebook.
“What we hear most often from people is that they want to see less political content on our services because they come to us to connect with other people,” Zuckerberg said.
Facebook has already begun showing users less political content, he said.
“I think our services will play a bigger role in this election than they’ve played in the past,” Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg joins a growing number of business moguls and Wall Street titans who have praised President Trump.
Elon Musk endorsed Trump just 30 minutes after the Pennsylvania shooting and has since pledged to donate $45 million a month to Trump’s super PAC. Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz also endorsed Trump. It is reported that they plan to donate To the Trump PAC.
Wall Street CEOs including Jamie Dimon and David Solomon spoke out in support of Trump in the aftermath of the shooting.
Despite Zuckerberg’s praise, President Trump doesn’t seem to have forgiven the social media mogul. In fact, he threatened to jail the billionaire last week.
“All I can say is that if I’m elected president, I will go after election fraudsters like never before and I will give them long prison sentences,” Trump said. Posted on Truth Social“We already know who you are. Don’t do that! Zuckerbucks, watch out!”
During his presidency, Trump tried to ban the Chinese-owned video app TikTok, a years-long legislative battle that continues to this day, before changing his tune.
“I support TikTok because TikTok needs competition,” Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek published Tuesday. “Without TikTok, you have Facebook and you have Instagram.”
Trump owns a majority stake in Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns his network, Truth Social. The company has a market capitalization of $7 billion but generates $770,000 in quarterly revenue, the equivalent of two U.S. Starbucks stores, and its social media apps have struggled to grow and retain a user base.
Zuckerberg said he welcomes competition in the social media space.
“I think we’re doing pretty well here,” he told Bloomberg in an interview. “We’re growing our market share. So I don’t know. They’ll do what they need to do, but I think we’ll be OK and will do well in this space anyway.”
When asked if TikTok should be banned in the US, Zuckerberg dodged the question, saying, “It’s beyond my salary.”
