Continuous 'Relationship Improvement'... Zuckerberg Donates $1 Million to Trump Inauguration Fund

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, donated $1 million to the inauguration fund of President-elect Donald Trump, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 11th (local time).

This occurred when CEO Zuckerberg visited Mar-a-Lago in Florida at the end of last month to congratulate President-elect Trump on his election victory. At the event, Zuckerberg congratulated President-elect Trump on his election win, and Trump reportedly responded in kind.

CEO Zuckerberg has been actively working to resolve the tense relationship that followed after he blocked President-elect Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts due to the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot by Trump supporters. President-elect Trump is known to have harbored strong hostility toward Zuckerberg, having written on his social media platform Truth Social in July, "If I become president, Zuckerberg will spend the rest of his life in prison." In this context, CEO Zuckerberg made efforts to improve relations, including at least two phone calls with President-elect Trump ahead of the election.

CEO Zuckerberg also has a strained relationship with Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, who is known as President-elect Trump's 'first buddy.' Last year, when Meta launched the social networking service 'Threads' targeting X (formerly Twitter), the two engaged in a war of words that even led to a challenge for a mixed martial arts fight.

Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce company, has also expressed a positive stance toward President-elect Trump and indicated his intention to assist him after the inauguration. At the 'DealBook Summit' hosted by The New York Times on the 4th, Bezos said about President-elect Trump, "He seems to be putting a lot of energy into reducing regulations," and added, "If I can help him, I will." Bezos had clashed with President-elect Trump on numerous occasions during Trump's first administration.

The WSJ analyzed, "Now that the Republican Party controls both the White House and Congress, some big tech executives are taking a new stance toward Trump."