Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly making efforts to align himself with President Donald Trump, seeking to influence the administration’s approach to artificial intelligence (AI). Zuckerberg has had several private meetings with the US President to pledge his “allegiance,” doubling back from their heated relationship during Trump’s first term.
According to sources familiar with the matter, cited by the Financial Times, Zuckerberg has set his sights on purchasing a property in Washington, D.C. The CEO is likely going to use the property keep close ties with the White House and purportedly to advise President Trump on AI matters.
The move signals Mark Zuckerberg’s ambition to work closely with the Trump administration as he seeks a role in influencing regulation in areas such as artificial intelligence https://t.co/SHwUMftXcX pic.twitter.com/OzAvBigq59
— Financial Times (@FT) January 29, 2025
Meta has not corroborated the story, but one source speaking to FT indicated that a specific property had already been identified.
The 40-year-old tech billionaire’s move to Washington signals a change of heart from his relationship with Trump back in 2016 when they bashed heads over Meta’s “content moderation” policies.
These shifts come as Meta targets to be the leading company in artificial intelligence worldwide, competing with companies like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft. The startup hopes that with President Trump’s support, it will overcome the regulatory hurdles set by the previous US administration.
President Trump’s camp: Zuckerberg needs to do more
Zuckerberg’s recent overtures and Right-Wing remarks are yet to satisfy Trump’s team, according to one senior member of the President’s administration.
“He can’t just snap his fingers and make the past not happen,” the official told the news outlet, Rolling Stone. They added that the Meta chief would need to “show more commitment” to Trump’s agenda. “Zuckerberg’s current efforts are a good start, but not nearly enough.”
During President Trump’s first term, Zuckerberg was at odds with the administration over issues like immigration. Per a Washington Post report, in 2015, Trump made a controversial Facebook Post, summoning the US government to stop Muslims from coming into the country.
The social platform’s employees, together with the CEO, became jittery about the statements and requested it to be pulled down. This made Trump and Zuckerberg’s relationship worse, and up until recent times, the former did not see eye to eye with many social media platforms in America, calling them tools for spreading “fake news.”
However, this time around, the Meta CEO appears to be taking a different approach to avoid the wrath of the US President, known for “punishing” anyone who goes against his plans.
Zuckerberg was among the invitees to Donald Trump’s Presidential Inauguration Ceremony on January 20, alongside Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Tesla Billionaire CEO Elon Musk.
Reports suggest that Zuckerberg has assured Trump’s team that he will not oppose the president’s policies and will work to make Meta’s social platforms “censorship-free.”
Moreover, Meta itself has also taken steps to appease conservatives, recently ending its third-party fact-checking program and donating $1m to Trump’s inaugural fund.
Can Zuckerberg be trusted?
Earlier this month, Meta replaced its global policy chief, Nick Clegg, with Joel Kaplan, a prominent Republican figure with ties to the Trump administration.
In 2020, when President Trump was serving his first term, Meta and Zuckerberg often deferred to Joel Kaplan behind closed doors. The company implemented several policies on content, promotion, and fact-checking that appeared to favor Republican interests, stemming from Kaplan’s ties to Trump.
However, even Kaplan’s help was not enough to keep the Facebook co-founder on Trump’s good graces. Per a Reuters report, Trump threatened to take legal action against the tech billionaire in 2021, accusing Meta, alongside X (then Twitter) and Google, of interfering in elections and labeling the company an “enemy of the people.”
The 47th US President also called for the CEO to be jailed if he dare meddled in the 2024 presidential race.
After Meta announced the end of its third-party fact-checking program, Former President Joe Biden told reporters that the decision could lead to the “spread of misinformation.”
“The idea that a billionaire can buy something and say, ‘by the way, from this point on, we’re not going to fact-check anything,’ is really shameful,” Biden said during a press briefing on January 10.
The criticism follows Zuckerberg’s claim that the Biden administration pressured Meta to censor discussions about COVID-19 vaccine side effects.
Earlier this month, during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Zuckerberg said his company was solicited to remove certain content about COVID-19 vaccinations, even when it contained accurate information.
“They pushed us super hard to take down things that were honestly true,” Zuckerberg told Rogan. “Anything that said vaccines might have side effects, you basically need to take down.”
The American businessman did not specify which officials made the requests but asserted that he regretted some of the company’s decisions during the pandemic.
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Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/mark-zuckerberg-seeks-to-advise-trump-on-ai/