Meta has donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, amid CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s efforts to curry favor with the president-elect more than a month before he takes office.
The $1.6 trillion owner of Facebook and Instagram confirmed the donation to The Post after a report late Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal indicated that Zuckerberg’s company, which has largely stayed out of presidential races, abandoned the practice of passed.
A spokesman for Meta declined to comment further.
Last month, Zuckerberg paid a visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
The two men reportedly had dinner — during which Trump was gifted a pair of Ray Ban smart glasses by the tech mogul.
Before the dinner, Zuckerberg’s deputies informed Trump aides that Meta planned to make the $1 million donation to the inaugural fund, according to the Journal.
Meta did not donate to Trump’s inaugural fund in 2017 — nor did it to outgoing President Joe Biden’s inaugural fund four years later, public records cited by the Journal show.
Zuckerberg, whose social media platforms banned the president-elect on the eve of January. 6, 2021 turmoil in the US Capitol, has sought to rehabilitate his relationship with Trump in recent months by holding at least two private phone conversations over the summer.
The Facebook founder also publicly praised Trump after the July assassination, during which the president-elect was seen pumping his fist in defiance of blood streaming down his face — a reaction Zuckerberg called “bad.”
The warmer ties are a study in contrast to the previous election cycle, when Trump floated the idea of jailing Zuckerberg after he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated about $400 million to nonprofits created to facilitate voting during the pandemic.
Trump and his supporters accused Meta’s boss of using Zuckerbucks to help Democrats, but the tech mogul denied that.
Zuckerberg and Chan have sought to make inroads with Republicans by hiring GOP strategist Brian Baker, who was tasked with explaining the $400 million donation in 2020.
In August, Zuckerberg told the House Judiciary Committee in a letter that it was inappropriate for the Biden administration to pressure Facebook to censor content related to COVID-19.
Zuckerberg also pledged to GOP lawmakers that he would not make additional donations to boost election infrastructure.
“My goal is to be neutral and not play a role one way or the other — or even appear to be playing a role,” Zuckerberg wrote.
The Post has sought comment from the Trump transition team.
Zuckerberg is one of several tech executives seeking to make good on Trump just weeks before he begins his second term.
Last week, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, said he was “very optimistic” about a second Trump term because of the incoming president’s pro-business, anti-regulation agenda.
Bezos, who has also been a letter to Trump, blocked his paper’s editorial board from publishing an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris less than two weeks before the election — prompting several resignations at the paper as well as a wave of subscriber cancellations.
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