In a new book to be released on Sept. 3, former President Donald Trump, 78, revealed that META CEO Mark Zuckerberg, 40, plotted against him during the 2020 election. He further warned that if the technocrat does this again in November, he would "spend the rest of his life in prison."
The Trump-authored coffee table book titled "Save America" seen by Politico includes an undated photograph of the Republican presidential nominee meeting with Zuckerberg in the White House.
Trump captioned the photo with "Zuckerberg would come to the Oval Office to see me. He would bring his very nice wife to dinners, be as nice as anyone could be, while always plotting to install shameful 'Lock Boxes' in a true plot against the president."
He added that Zuckerberg told him that "there was nobody like Trump on Facebook. But at the same time, and for whatever reason, steered it against me. We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time, he will spend the rest of his life in prison as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election."
The book also cited Trump's statements about the Big Tech mogul in the past. Back in July, the 45th U.S. president wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that once he regains the White House seat, he would pursue election fraudsters and that he would make sure to make them serve long jail periods.
"We already know who you are. Don't do it! Zuckerbucks, be careful!" he said.
"Zuckerbucks" refers to the $420 million contribution Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, made during the 2020 election to fund election infrastructure.
A Meta spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Politico wrote.
Meanwhile, on Aug. 26, Zuckerberg wrote to the House Judiciary Committee that the Biden administration had tried to "pressure" his tech company to downplay certain content about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) back in 2021. According to the Facebook founder, "government pressure was wrong" and expressed regret for not speaking out about it at the time.
Mark Zuckerberg just admitted three things:
1. Biden-Harris Admin "pressured" Facebook to censor Americans.
2. Facebook censored Americans.
3. Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Big win for free speech. pic.twitter.com/ALlbZd9l6K
— House Judiciary GOP ?????? (@JudiciaryGOP) August 26, 2024
Zuckerberg also said he would not make similar contributions to fund election infrastructure ahead of this year's election, promising that he would no longer compromise Facebook's content standards due to pressure "from any administration in either direction." (Related: Zuckerberg claims he 'regrets' censoring Americans under 'pressure' from Biden-Harris admin.)
He also pledged to "push back if something like this happens again" and will remain politically "neutral" ahead of the November election.
Republicans have long scrutinized Zuckerberg and his platforms for initially suppressing stories about the then-future first son Hunter Biden's "laptop from hell" issue and its alleged coordination with the administration to throttle certain COVID-19 content.
Zuckerberg apologized for META's AI "misinformation" related to Trump's assassination
According to the former president, Zuckerberg apologized to him regarding META's artificial intelligence (AI) tools' claim that Trump wasn't shot.
"He actually apologized; he said they'd made a mistake," Trump said on "Mornings with Maria" on Fox Business. "He actually announced he's not going to support a Democrat because he can't because he respected me for what I did that day."
As per Business Insider, the tech giant's spokesperson declined to comment but didn't dispute that the two had talked. The spokesperson also referred the news outlet to Zuckerberg's previous statement, saying he wouldn't be endorsing any presidential candidate in 2024.
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg talked about Trump in an interview with Bloomberg, lauding his reaction when he experienced a liquidation attempt, even calling Trump a "badass."
"Seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag is one of the most badass things I've ever seen in my life," Zuckerberg said of Trump's assassination attempt. "On some level as an American, it's like hard to not get kind of emotional about that spirit and that fight, and I think that that's why a lot of people like the guy."
In 2021, Meta "indefinitely" suspended Trump's accounts following the January 6 Capitol riots, citing "use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government."
"His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world," Zuckerberg said at that time. "We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect, and likely their intent, would be to provoke further violence."
But in July, Meta removed the additional guardrails that remained in place on Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts following their reinstatement.
"In assessing our responsibility to allow political expression, we believe that the American people should be able to hear from the nominees for President on the same basis," Meta said. “As a result, former President Trump, as the nominee of the Republican Party, will no longer be subject to the heightened suspension penalties."
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