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 response to Bloomberg, the corporate didn’t make the same 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 showing 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.
Based on the Wall Street Journal, earlier than the dinner, Zuckerberg demonstrated what the Ray-Ban Meta sensible glasses might do earlier than giving the President-elect a pair as a present. The $299 glasses can reply calls, take photos, and ship texts; Zuckerberg mentioned at an earnings call in July that they’ve turn into a “larger hit earlier than we anticipated.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Picture Credit score: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos
Stories emerged last week that Zuckerberg is concerned with serving to form tech insurance policies with the Trump administration. Meta’s President of International Affairs Nick Clegg told The Verge that Zuckerberg is concerned with taking an energetic 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 Reality Social publish from July, Trump known 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 the moment the third richest particular person on the planet with a internet value of $224 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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