Mark Zuckerberg called former President Donald Trump “bad” for his response to last weekend’s assassination attempt, although the tech billionaire did not endorse him for the 2024 election.
The boss of social media giant Meta — who has a net worth of $167 billion according to Forbes — applauded Trump’s strength after surviving an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend that left him bleeding from the ear.
“Seeing Donald Trump get up after being shot in the face and put his fist in the air with the American flag is one of the worst things I’ve ever seen in my life,” Zuckerberg said Thursday during an interview with Bloomberg.
“On some level as an American, it’s hard not to get excited about that spirit and that fight, and I think that’s why a lot of people like that guy.”
The praise comes despite years of bloodshed between the social media titan and the former president.
Trump’s Facebook posts were often flagged for containing misinformation and violating Meta’s rules. The company then suspended Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts for two years after the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the Capitol — prompting him to create Truth Social, a Trump-centric remake of X.
At the time, Zuckerberg tweeted that Trump was using his account to “undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power” to President Joe Biden.
But now Zuckerberg said he is “not planning” to get involved in the election and wants to depoliticize Facebook.
“The main thing I hear from people is that they actually want to see less political content on our services because they come to our services to connect with people,” Zuckerberg said.
He said Facebook has already started showing users less political content.
“I think you’re going to see our services play a smaller role in this election than in the past,” Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg joins a growing number of business magnates and Wall Street titans who are patting Trump on the back.
Elon Musk issued a last-minute endorsement of Trump just 30 minutes after the Pennsylvania shooting, and has since pledged $45 million a month to a Trump super PAC. Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz also reportedly have plans to donate to a Trump PAC.
Wall Street CEOs including Jamie Dimon and David Solomon spoke out in support of Trump shortly after the shooting.
Despite Zuckerberg’s praise, Trump doesn’t seem to have forgiven the social media mogul. In fact, he threatened the billionaire with jail just last week.
“All I can say is that if I am elected President, we will go after Election Fraudsters at levels never seen before and they will be sent to prison for long periods of time,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “We already know who you are. DO NOT DO IT! ZUCKERBUCKS, watch out!”
During his presidency, Trump fought to ban Chinese-owned video app TikTok — a years-long legislative battle still in progress. He has since changed his tune.
“I’m for TikTok because you need competition,” Trump told Bloomberg BusinessWeek in an interview posted Tuesday. “If you don’t have TikTok, you have Facebook and Instagram.”
Trump holds a majority stake in Trump Media and Technology Group – the company that owns his Truth Social network. The company has a market cap of $7 billion despite quarterly revenue of $770,000 — comparable to two US Starbucks stores — as the social media app has struggled to grow and maintain its small user base.
Zuckerberg said he welcomes competition in the social media space.
“I think we’re doing very well here,” he said during the Bloomberg interview. “We are gaining market share. So I don’t know. They’re going to do what they have to do, but I think we’re going to be fine and continue to do well in this space either way.”
When asked if TikTok should be banned in the US, Zuckerberg dismissed the question and said, “That’s above my pay grade.”
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