Quick: You’re a billionaire tech CEO with arguably one of the biggest megaphones in the world. You’ve had an up-and-down relationship with the incoming president of the United States who, among other things, has threatened to send you to prison for life. Do you (a) use your platform to warn against said president-elect‘s authoritarian tendencies and use your considerable influence to strengthen organizations fighting to uphold democracy, (b) keep your head down and hope for the best, or (c) whip out the company checkbook and make it clear you’re prepared to spend the next four years kissing ass like you’ve never kissed ass before? If you’re Mark Zuckerberg, the answer is apparently a resounding (c).
The Wall Street Journal reports that Zuckerberg’s Meta has donated a cool $1 million to Donald Trump’s inauguration fund, the latest effort by the tech CEO to “bolster his once-fraught relationship with the incoming president.” To be clear, Meta and Zuckerberg do not regularly give out political donations of this kind; according to the Journal, neither Zuckerberg nor the company donated to Trump’s first inaugural fund or to Joe Biden’s fund in 2021. Meanwhile, “federal campaign-finance reports show Zuckerberg has supported congressional candidates in both parties over the years and has largely stayed out of presidential races.”
But this time around things are different. And by different, we mean that some of the richest people in the United States of America have decided that the best way to approach Trump and the threat he poses to their companies, their freedom, or both is to kiss the ring. In addition to the $1 million donation, Zuckerberg—whom Trump has threatened with prison time on at least two occasions—visited Mar-a-Lago last month to dine with the incoming president; before the dinner, Zuckerberg, per the Journal, “did a private demonstration for Trump of Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, which he gifted to the president-elect,” according to people familiar with the matter. After Trump won the election, the Meta CEO congratulated him on social media, and said he was looking forward to working together.
Zuckerberg is, of course, far from the only CEO to kowtow to the former and future president. Following the election, Jeff Bezos—whose Washington Post very conspicuously chose to break with tradition and not endorse a presidential candidate—praised Trump on “an extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory,” and later said he was “actually very optimistic this time around.” And Elon Musk has effectively become a member of the family.
Even before Trump’s November win, billionaires had signaled that they would absolutely not be standing up to the guy, despite clearly believing him to be a threat. Bill Gates reportedly donated approximately $50 million to a nonprofit that supported Kamala Harris’s run, attempting to do so in secret, and did not publicly endorse the VP. Similarly, The New York Times reported that Jamie Dimon, the typically outspoken CEO of JPMorgan Chase, “made clear” in private that he supported Harris but chose not to announce his stance publicly out of fear that if Trump won, he would “retaliate against the people and companies who publicly opposed his run.”
Hey, remember when people voted for Trump because he was going to lower the price of groceries?
Well…
Trump added that he “think[s]” prices will come down, but, y’know, no promises!
It’s almost as though Biden wasn’t antibusiness
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