Meta donates US$1 million to Trump's inauguration fund

The Meta logo is seen at the Vivatech show in Paris, France, June 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

NEW YORK CITY — Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said it has donated US$1 million to U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's inauguration fund.

The donation comes just weeks after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with Trump privately at Mar-a-Lago. A Meta spokesperson confirmed the offering Thursday. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Stephen Miller, who has been appointed deputy chief of staff for Trump’s second term, has said that Zuckerberg, like other business leaders, wants to support Trump’s economic plans. The tech CEO has been seeking to change his company’s perception on the right following a rocky relationship with Trump.

Trump was kicked off Facebook following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The company restored his account in early 2023.

During the 2024 campaign, Zuckerberg did not endorse a candidate for president but has voiced a more positive stance toward Trump. Earlier this year, he praised Trump’s response to his first assassination attempt.

Still, Trump had continued to attack Zuckerberg publicly during the campaign. In July, he posted a message on his own social network Truth Social threatening to send election fraudsters to prison in part by citing a nickname he used for the Meta CEO. “ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!” Trump wrote.

Corporations have traditionally made up a large share of donors to presidential inaugurals, with an exception in 2009, when then-U.S.-president-elect Barack Obama refused to accept corporate donations. He reversed course for his second inaugural in 2013.

Facebook did not donate to either Biden's 2021 inaugural or Trump’s 2017 inaugural.

Google donated US$285,000 each to Trump first inaugural and Biden’s inaugural, according to Federal Election Commission records. Inaugural committees are required to disclose the source of their fundraising, but not how they spend the money. Microsoft gave US$1 million to Obama’s second inaugural, but only US$500,000 to Trump in 2017 and Biden in 2021.