Meta Donates $1 Million to Trump’s Inaugural Fund

Meta donated $1 million to president-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, The Wall Street Journal (Center bias) reported.

For Context: Meta owner and CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with Trump privately at Mar-a-Lago on November 27. Zuckerberg has previously made donations to both Republican and Democratic politicians.

Rocky Past: In the 2020 presidential election, Trump and other Republicans accused Zuckerberg of trying to bolster Democratic voter turnout by investing $400 million in election infrastructure in battleground states. In 2021, Meta banned Trump from its platforms after the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, but it lifted the ban in July 2024.

How the Media Covered It: Outlets across the spectrum promptly described Zuckerberg’s donation as part of an ostensible strategy to improve relations with Trump:

• The Journal wrote that in fall 2021, Zuckerberg hired Republican strategists to “make inroads with Republicans.”
• The Telegraph (Lean Right bias) noted that in a book published by Trump in September, Trump said Zuckerberg would “spend the rest of his life in prison,” if he illegally interfered in the 2024 election.
• CNN (Lean Left bias) wrote, “Leading up to the election, Zuckerberg had been gradually showing a closer affinity with Trump,” and highlighted that he described Trump’s reaction to the July attempt on his life as “bada**.”