Meta Platforms has donated US$1 million (NZ$1.7 million) to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, a company spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed response.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, said the donation was a departure from past practice by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Meta.
Zuckerberg had declined to endorse either Donald Trump or Joe Biden for this year’s election, in a media interview that took place before Biden stepped down as the Democratic nominee and was replaced by Kamala Harris.
The billionaire CEO, however, had complimented Trump’s reaction to the 13 July assassination attempt as “one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life”, among his recent attempts to appeal to conservative users.
Zuckerberg had met Trump after the elections in late November, according to the New York Times, a meeting that the newspaper said was the latest attempt by the Meta boss to establish a positive rapport with Trump.
Trump and Zuckerberg’s Meta have had strained relations in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.
The president-elect accused Meta of suppressing content that would have hurt Biden in the 2020 election, and also criticised Zuckerberg’s donations to bolster election infrastructure.
Meta suspended Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts for about two years following the January 2021 Capitol riots.
