Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, has given $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund. This was confirmed to CBS media on Wednesday night, after being first reported by the Wall Street media.
The donation comes about two weeks after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg traveled to Florida and had dinner with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Around that same time, Trump adviser Stephen Miller told Fox media that Zuckerberg had shown interest in backing Trump’s plans for “the national renewal of America.”
It’s worth remembering that Trump was taken off Facebook after the events of January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol, when his posts were seen as possibly encouraging the violence.
Meta later let him back on in early 2023, but with certain limits in place. Those extra rules were removed this past July. Today, Trump has a huge following on both Facebook and Instagram, adding up to around 65 million people.
In August, Zuckerberg sent a letter to Congress saying that in 2021, the Biden administration pressured Meta to remove certain COVID-19 posts, including ones meant to be funny or satirical. He called that government pressure “wrong” and promised to push back if it happened again.
Many in Silicon Valley have been feeling uneasy about what might happen if Trump returns to the White House, and some people see Meta’s recent donation as a way for Zuckerberg to ease that tension.
Adding to the uncertainty, Trump has chosen Brendan Carr—known for criticizing large tech companies—to lead the Federal Communications Commission, raising more questions about how tech giants will be treated if Trump takes office again.
