Facebook founder and Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg praised former President Donald Trump’s response to the assassination attempt on his life.
“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,” explained Zuckerberg. “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.”
Zuckerberg did not endorse Trump or President Joe Biden in the Bloomberg interview.
Zuckerberg claimed he won’t get involved in the election. He also hopes Facebook and Meta don’t have much of a play in the election as they go back to their original purpose: connecting people:
“The main thing that I hear from people is that they actually want to see less political content on our services because they come to our services to connect with people.” Meta is already recommending less political content to its users, he added. “I think you’re going to see our services play less of a role in this election than they have in the past.”
Trump lost access to his Facebook and Instagram accounts after the Capitol Hill Riots.
Zuckerberg claimed Trump used “his account to ‘undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor.'”
Meta reinstated Trump’s accounts, but he hasn’t forgiven the company.
Trump changed his mind about banning TikTok because it gives Meta more competition.
Zuckerberg doesn’t mind the competition:
Trump has reversed policy positions in the name of punishing Meta. While he was president, Trump pushed for a ban of the Chinese-owned video app, TikTok. Trump has since changed his stance, arguing in Businessweek that a ban would be too beneficial to Meta’s business.Zuckerberg said he welcomes competition. “It’s good,” he said on The Circuit. “I think we’re doing pretty well here. We’re gaining market share. So I don’t know. They’ll go do what they need to do but I think we’re gonna be fine and we’re gonna continue doing well in this space either way.”When asked if he thought TikTok should be banned, Zuckerberg demurred. “That’s above my pay grade,” he said.
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