Mark Zuckerberg spotted at Mar-a-Lago months after Trump threatened to jail him
Mark Zuckerberg has been spotted at Mar-a-Lago months after President-elect Donald Trump threatened to imprison him.
Stephen Miller confirmed Zuckerberg’s visit to Fox News.
“Yes, that’s correct,” Miller, who has been tapped to serve as Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, told Fox News. “Mark Zuckerberg has been very clear about his desire to be a supporter of and a participant in this change that we’re seeing all around America, all around the world, with this reform movement that Donald Trump is leading.
“Mark Zuckerberg, like so many business leaders, understands that President Trump is an agent of change, an agent of prosperity, and so business leaders, CEOs everywhere, they want to be an element, a supporter, a booster of making our economy prosperous, delivering for American workers and making sure that America is the most powerful, wealthiest, freest nation of the face of the earth.
Politico first reported the news of Zuckerberg’s visit on Wednesday. The Meta CEO was spotted with a large security and staff presence at Mar-a-Lago, a person with direct knowledge of the meeting told the outlet.
In a written statement, a Meta spokesperson told the outlet that Zuckerberg was “grateful” for an invitation to join Trump for dinner and meet with other members of the incoming administration.
“It’s an important time for the future of American innovation,” the spokesperson told Politico.
“We’ll see what comes of that,” said Miller, who served as an adviser during Trump’s first term. “Mark, obviously, he has his own interests, he has his own company and he has his own agenda, but he’s made clear that he wants to support the national renewal of America under President Trump’s leadership.”
Trump has previously called for Zuckerberg to be put behind bars for giving away hundreds of millions of dollars to election infrastructure in 2020. Trump claimed the action constituted election interference. Trump threatened to throw Zuckerberg in jail if he allocated similar funds to what he called “election interference” this year.
In October, however, Trump appeared to change his tune on the social media kingpin, saying on a podcast it was “nice” Zuckerberg was “staying out of the election.” Zuckerberg called Trump after his assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania in July. He did not endorse a presidential candidate in 2024.
Trump was kicked off Facebook after the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol. His account was restored in early 2023.
Zuckerberg is not the first person on the receiving end of Trump’s invective to make a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago following his election victory. Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, two of the hosts of MSNBC show Morning Joe, revealed that they had met with the president-elect at his Florida resort.
The couple – former friends of Trump turned bitter critics – said it was a fence-mending exercise, although others speculated they had been concerned about retribution from the incoming president. Trump has previously linked Scarborough to unfounded conspiracy theories related to the death of an intern, 28-year-old intern Lori Klausutis, who died from complications from a heart condition in 2001.