Mark Zuckerberg praised Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s response to his assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania last weekend.
Meta’s CEO, in an interview with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang on Thursday, recalled seeing the former president stand up after the shooting and then raise his fist in the air, a moment documented in widely shared photos of the attack that killed a rallygoer.
Zuckerberg described the scene, which featured an American flag flying in the sky, as “one of the coolest things” he had seen in his life.
“As an American, it’s hard not to be moved by that spirit and that fight, and I think that’s why a lot of people love this guy,” Zuckerberg said of Trump.
The head of Meta Platforms, who criticized Trump over his immigration policies in 2017, has refused to endorse either the Republican candidate or President Joe Biden as they vie for the White House this year.
“I’ve done some things in my personal capacity in the past. I don’t intend to do that this time,” said Zuckerberg, who has previously made headlines for his political actions.
Zuckerberg’s remarks come after fellow billionaire Elon Musk supported Trump following his assassination attempt.
Musk has reportedly pledged to donate $45 million per month to America PAC, a political action committee working to elect Trump.
Zuckerberg, in a separate interview with Chang, said that users of Meta’s services “actually want to see less political content.” Meta’s Instagram account announced earlier this year that the platform would not “proactively recommend” political content from accounts that users don’t follow.
“I think you’ll see our services play a less significant role in this election than they have in the past,” Zuckerberg said Thursday.
Trump, whose Facebook and Instagram accounts were suspended following the January 6, 2021, insurrection before being reinstated last year, has called Facebook an “enemy of the people” and apparently warned Zuckerberg he would go to jail if Trump reclaimed the Oval Office.
Trump recently told Bloomberg Businessweek that he opposed banning Chinese platform TikTok because “we need competition,” before bashing Facebook and Instagram.
“It’s, you know, it’s Zuckerberg,” the former president said.
Before the 2020 election, Biden also said he was “never a big fan of Zuckerberg,” calling the CEO a “real problem.”
