Meta is working to construct relationship with President-elect Donald Trump and made a large donation to show it.
Meta confirmed to the Wall Road Journal on Wednesday that it has donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. The donation is new floor for Meta; in line 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. Firms are usually the most important donors to those funds, with Federal Election Fee data displaying that Microsoft gave $500,000 every to Trump in 2017 and Biden in 2021, whereas Google donated $285,000 every.
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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 Seaside, Florida.
In accordance with the Wall Road 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 name in July that they’ve turn out to be a “larger hit prior to we anticipated.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Picture Credit score: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos
Studies emerged final week that Zuckerberg is inquisitive about serving to form tech insurance policies with the Trump administration. Meta’s President of International Affairs Nick Clegg informed The Verge that Zuckerberg is inquisitive about taking an lively half in debates about sustaining America’s tech management.
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Regardless of the current 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 said was “his reward for individuals 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 Reality Social put up: “Why is not he being prosecuted?”
In one other Reality Social put up from July, Trump referred to as out “Zuckerbucks,” his nickname for Zuckerberg, and cautioned him to “watch out!”
In his guide “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 current 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 particular person on the planet with a web price of $224 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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