Zuckerberg dines with Trump in Mar-a-Lago

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Donald Trump dined on Wednesday with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, bringing together the Facebook founder and the former president who was once banned from that social network.

Stephen Miller, who has been appointed deputy chief of staff for Trump’s second term, said Zuckerberg, like other business leaders, wants to back Trump’s economic plans. The tech CEO has been seeking to transformation his corporation’s perception on the correct following a rocky connection with Trump.

“Mark, obviously, he has his own gain, and he has his own corporation and he has his own agenda,” Miller said in an interview on Fox information about the conference. “But he’s made obvious that he wants to back the national renewal of America under Trump’s leadership.”

A spokesperson for Meta confirmed that Zuckerberg and Trump met on Wednesday, saying he was invited for dinner with the president-elect and other members of his throng to talk about the incoming administration.

Trump was kicked off Facebook following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The corporation restored his account in early 2023.

During the 2024 campaign, Zuckerberg did not endorse a candidate for president.

Zuckerberg has since taken a more positive stance toward Trump. Earlier this year, he praised Trump’s response to his first assassination attempt, calling it “badass.” Zuckerberg also complained that elder Biden administration officials pressured Facebook to “censor” some COVID-19 content during the pandemic.

Still, Trump in recent months had continued to attack Zuckerberg publicly. In July, he posted a communication on his own social network Truth Social threatening to send election fraudsters to prison in part by citing a nickname he used for the Meta CEO. “ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!” Trump wrote.

The Thanksgiving eve visit also comes as tech mogul Elon Musk has become more influential in Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, contributing an estimated $200 million through his political action committee to assist elect Trump. Musk is the billionaire owner of the X social network, a competitor to Meta.

Musk has spent considerable period at Mar-a-Lago since the election, and Trump selected him to navigator an outside advisory panel known as the “Department of Government Efficiency ” to identify waste with Vivek Ramaswamy, a assignment capitalist and former GOP presidential candidate.