Meta is working to construct a great relationship with President-elect Donald Trump and made a large donation to show it.
Meta confirmed to the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that it has donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. The donation is new floor for Meta; in keeping with Bloomberg, the corporate didn’t make an analogous donation earlier than President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021 or for Trump’s in 2017.
The inauguration fund is used for bills that come up when a brand new president assumes workplace. Companies are usually the most important donors to those funds, with Federal Election Fee data showing that Microsoft gave $500,000 every to Trump in 2017 and Biden in 2021, whereas Google donated $285,000 every.
Associated: ‘A Comeback of Historic Proportions’: Here’s Why Donald Trump Is Time’s 2024 Person of the Year
Meta’s million-dollar donation arrives two weeks after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg dined with Trump at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago membership in Palm Seashore, Florida.
In response to the Wall Street Journal, earlier than the dinner, Zuckerberg demonstrated what the Ray-Ban Meta good glasses may do earlier than giving the President-elect a pair as a present. The $299 glasses can reply calls, take footage, and ship texts; Zuckerberg stated at an earnings call in July that they’ve change into a “greater hit ahead of we anticipated.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Picture Credit score: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg through Getty Photographs
Stories emerged last week that Zuckerberg is curious about serving to form tech insurance policies with the Trump administration. Meta’s President of International Affairs Nick Clegg told The Verge that Zuckerberg is curious about taking an lively half in debates about sustaining America’s tech management.
Regardless of the latest dinner and donation, the connection between Trump and Zuckerberg has been contentious. Meta suspended Trump’s Fb and Instagram accounts in 2021 following what the corporate stated was “his reward for folks engaged in violence on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
Meta reinstated his accounts in 2023, however the relationship between Trump and Zuckerberg had grown extra tense. Trump accused Zuckerberg of dishonest on the elections and wrote in a February 2023 Truth Social post: “Why is not he being prosecuted?”
In another Fact Social publish from July, Trump referred to as out “Zuckerbucks,” his nickname for Zuckerberg, and cautioned him to “watch out!”
In his book “Save America,” which got here out on September 3, Trump wrote if Zuckerberg did “something unlawful” within the 2024 presidential election, he would go to jail.
In latest months, the connection between the 2 has been extra cordial with Zuckerberg calling Trump in August to apologize over an incorrectly labeled image and congratulating Trump on his victory in November.
Zuckerberg is at present the third richest individual on this planet with a web price of $224 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Associated: Internal Strife Rages At Facebook Over Zuckerberg’s Response to Trump
