Zuckerberg Wants Trump to Meet the 'Real Mark' as Part of Meta Makeover

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is taking drastic measures to recast himself and his company in a bid to win over President-elect Donald Trump and the ascendant Republican party. Zuckerberg’s goal? For Trump to meet the “real Mark.”

The Wall Street Journal reports that Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg is spearheading a frenzied effort to reshape both his personal image and the policies of his social media giant to align with the incoming Republican administration led by President-elect Donald Trump. The pivoting comes as Zuckerberg faces both peril and opportunity in the new political landscape. Zuckerberg reportedly hopes to take an “active role” in shaping the Trump administration’s tech policy.

Zuckerberg’s charm offensive has included two meetings with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida over the past seven weeks, where the two discussed resolving a lawsuit Trump filed against Facebook in 2021 over the blacklisting of his account in 2020. Options on the table include a potential monetary settlement.

Zuckerberg also made an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, using the platform to criticize the outgoing Biden administration and praise the virtues of masculinity in corporate leadership. “I do think a lot of our society has become…kind of like, neutered, or like, emasculated,” Zuckerberg told Rogan, who endorsed Trump just before the election.

During the interview, Zuckerberg added, “When you’re running a company, people typically don’t want to see you being like this ruthless person.” He added that people who have seen him competing in jujitsu have remarked, “That’s the real Mark.”

These personal image adjustments are being mirrored by seismic policy shifts at Meta. The company has torched longstanding diversity initiatives, appointed a Republican head of global policy, and added UFC CEO Dana White to its board. Zuckerberg also announced Meta will relax “hate speech” rules, add political content back into user feeds, and scrap third-party fact checkers — unwinding many content moderation practices put in place in recent years.

Zuckerberg’s possible Republican realignment represents a strategic gamble that advertisers, facing the same political currents, won’t rebel against rolling back policies designed to protect their brands from appearing next to objectionable content. It’s the latest iteration of Zuckerberg’s “move fast and break things” philosophy as he navigates a radically altered political terrain.

Read more at the Wall Street Journal here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship