Reconciliation with 'Big Tech?' Trump and Zuckerberg dined together at Mar-a-Lago

Donald Trump met with Mark Zuckerberg at Mar-a-Lago. The president-elect met behind closed doors with the co-founder of Meta, which Facebook and Instagram. The meeting was confirmed by The New York Times and later by Stephen Miller, who will serve as deputy chief of staff starting next Jan. 20.

"Yes, that’s correct. Mark Zuckerberg has been very clear of his desire to support this change that we’re seeing all around America," Miller responded when asked directly on Fox News about the existence of the meeting with the president-elect.

Zuckerberg himself confirmed the news in a statement. "It’s an important time for the future of American Innovation. Mark was grateful for the invitation to join President Trump for dinner and the opportunity to meet with members of his team about the incoming Administration," he said.

"Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder, had a private meeting with President-elect Donald J. Trump at Mar-a-Lago this afternoon, two people briefed on the meeting tell Jonathan Swan and me. Zuckerberg did not back Trump, but he praised his defiant, fist-raised posture right after he was shot at in July by a would-be assassin in Pennsylvania as 'badass'. Zuckerberg’s representatives did not immediately return a request for comment," the NYT reported.

Trump and Zuckerberg's changing relationship

Despite maintaining a tense relationship with Trump over the past few years, the tech entrepreneur did not endorse any candidate in the 2024 election.

"Watching Donald Trump stand up after being shot in the face and raise his fist with the American flag is one of the most impressive things I've ever seen in my life. In a way, 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 like him," he said in July in an interview reported by Bloomberg.

Trump had been harsh on the tech entrepreneur, especially after Zuckerberg confessed to having "caved" to pressure from the Biden-Harris administration during the pandemic and censoring Hunter Biden's laptop story.

"He told me there was nobody like Trump on Facebook. But at the same time, and for whatever reason, steered it against me. We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison — as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election," reads "Save America" published by Trump mid-year.

Trump and Zuckerberg met at the White House in mid-2019 when they dined with Peter Thiel.