Author: Alex Isenstadt, Politico; Translated by: Wuzhu, Golden Finance
Former President Donald Trump writes in a new book due out next week that Mark Zuckerberg conspired against him during the 2020 election and says the Meta CEO "will spend the rest of his life in jail" if he does it again.
It was the latest attack by Trump on Zuckerberg, who he has repeatedly accused of interfering in the last presidential election. Meanwhile, Meta has taken steps to assure conservatives that it will not influence this year's campaign.
"Saving America," a coffee table book written by Trump that will be released on Sept. 3, includes an undated photo of Trump meeting with Zuckerberg at the White House. Below the photo, Trump wrote that Zuckerberg "would come to see me in the Oval Office. He would bring his very beautiful wife to dinner and act as nice as anyone, all the while plotting to install shameful lock boxes and truly plotting against the President," Trump added, referring to the $420 million donation from Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, to fund election infrastructure during the 2020 election.
"He told me there's no one like Trump on Facebook. But at the same time, for some reason, he's using it against me," Trump continued. "We are watching him very closely, and if he does anything illegal this time, he will spend the rest of his life in jail — just like everyone else who cheated in the 2024 presidential election."
Trump has made similar comments about Zuckerberg before. In a July Truth Social post, Trump wrote that if elected, he would "go after election fraudsters with an unprecedented intensity and jail them for long periods of time. We already know who you are. Don't do it! Zuckerbergs, beware!"
Republicans have criticized Meta for suppressing content that could damage President Joe Biden in 2020, most notably stories about the then-candidate's son Hunter. At the time, the FBI warned that the stories could be part of a Russian operation to influence the election.
In a letter to the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee on Monday, Zuckerberg acknowledged that suppressing the story was a mistake and said that "we have since made clear that the story was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we should not have downplayed the story."
In the same letter, Zuckerberg wrote that the Biden administration had tried to "pressure" Meta to downplay certain content about the pandemic, which he said was "wrong" for the White House to do. Zuckerberg also said he would not provide similar funding for election infrastructure before this year's election, but he also emphasized that the funding was not intended to be partisan.
“Saving America” is published by Winning Team Publishing, a company co-founded by Donald Trump Jr. and Trump ally Sergio Gore.
