When Mark Zuckerberg cozied up to Donald Trump at the beginning of this year, lots of folks chalked it up to fear.
After all, they pointed out, Trump had previously threatened to throw the Meta CEO in jail. More prosaically, the US government that Trump was about to head up again was suing to break up Zuckerberg’s company.
But as we’ve pointed out here multiple times, Zuckerberg — and the rest of Big Tech’s leaders — aren’t just trying to stay off Trump’s list of targets. They very much want Trump’s help.
Now Bloomberg has a helpful reminder, with a report that Zuckerberg met with Trump at the White House last week, and once again complained about digital regulation in other countries.
Message apparently received: Days later, Trump sent out a statement promising to “stand up to Countries that attack our incredible American Tech Companies,” and demanding that the rest of the world “Show respect to America and our amazing Tech Companies or, consider the consequences!”
A Meta rep confirmed the meeting — one of several Zuckerberg has had with Trump since his election. “Mark Zuckerberg visited the White House last week to discuss Meta’s domestic infrastructure investments and advancing American tech leadership abroad,” the company said.
Bloomberg’s report says Zuckerberg was particularly upset about “digital services” taxes some countries impose on American tech companies. Trump’s post was more expansive, though, also citing his beef with “Digital Services Legislation, and Digital Markets Regulations.”
In Trump’s telling, any regulations on American tech companies “are all designed to harm, or discriminate against, American Technology.”
Which, again, is what Zuckerberg and his peers say whenever they get the opportunity. This week, for instance, Apple complained about specific regulations in the UK that it said could ultimately hurt that country’s Apple users.
Trump isn’t just threatening other countries on behalf of Big Tech. He’s also giving them other goodies, like a federal AI policy that fulfills much of their wish list.
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And yes, some of what Big Tech is doing is still meant to keep Trump from punishing them.
See, for instance, Apple CEO Tim Cook’s recent televised pledge to invest billions into the US — which Trump explicitly said got Apple off the hook for some electronics tariffs. Trump is also happy to boast about Zuckerberg’s promise to build a huge data center in Louisiana.
Trump also hasn’t given Big Tech everything it wants. Most notably, he has yet to call off federal antitrust lawsuits against most of tech’s biggest players, including Apple and Meta. We’re currently waiting to hear how federal courts plan to punish Google after it lost two antitrust cases in the past year.
The most positive spin I’ve heard from tech executives is that Trump thinks keeping those suits in place helps him with some of his MAGA base.
An alternate, but complementary theory: Trump has been sued many times, and doesn’t think it’s that big a deal — even if Meta or Google or anyone else gets a bad ruling, they’ll be able to appeal, and the process will stretch on for years.
And in the meantime, Trump and Big Tech can keep their mutually beneficial alliance intact.
