Donald Trump’s animosity toward Mark Zuckerberg is getting even more heated. In a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, the former president threatened to put “election fraudsters” in jail, name checking the Meta founder in the process.
“All I can say is that if I’m elected President, we will pursue Election Fraudsters at levels never seen before, and they will be sent to prison for long periods of time,” Trump wrote. “We already know who you are. DON’T DO IT! ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!”
The threat comes four months after Trump referred to Facebook as the “enemy of the people” on CNBC’s Squawk Box. Last year, Trump also called for Zuckerberg to be prosecuted, writing on Truth Social, “He cheated on the Election(s). The whole system is RIGGED. Why isn’t he being prosecuted? The Democrats only know how to cheat. America isn’t going to take it much longer!”
Trump’s ire toward Zuckerberg goes back a long way. During his presidency, he criticized Facebook and threatened a governmental lawsuit against the company (and Google) for allegedly having a bias against conservatives.
“Look, we should be suing Google and Facebook and all that, which perhaps we will, OK?” Trump told Fox Business Network in June of 2019.
Things escalated in a big way in 2020, though, when Facebook banned Trump indefinitely following the January 6 attack on the Capitol. “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” Zuckerberg wrote at the time. “Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.” (The ban was eventually shortened to two years and Trump posts on the site regularly now.)
Facebook was the first social media service to indefinitely block Trump. Twitter had previously locked his account for a 12-hour period, but that temporary suspension was lifted by the following day.
Trump and Zuckerberg were at one point cordial despite their differences. Trump hosted the Meta founder for an undisclosed dinner at the White Housein 2019, when Zuckerberg was in D.C. to testify about Libra, Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency (which never launched). The pair had met a month prior to that in the Oval Office.
Nice meeting with Mark Zuckerberg of @Facebook in the Oval Office today. https://t.co/k5ofQREfOc pic.twitter.com/jNt93F2BsG
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 20, 2019
Trump has been ramping up the rhetoric since he was voted out of office, though.
In 2022, he made curious comments claiming Zuckerberg had joined him for dinner in the White House the night prior, despite being out of office for over a year and half.
“Last week, the weirdo — he’s a weirdo — Mark Zuckerberg came to the White House, kissed my ass all night,” Trump said during a Pennsylvania rally in September of that year. “‘Sir, [he claimed Zuckerberg said} I’d love to have dinner, sir. I’d love to have dinner. I’d love to bring my lovely wife.’ All right, Mark, come on in. ‘Sir, you’re number one on Facebook. I’d like to congratulate you.’ Thank you very much, Mark. I appreciate it.”
Trump’s reference in March to Facebook as a TikTok ban was under discussion, and he went on to voice his concerns that such action would only make Facebook bigger. (Trump did not discuss his own efforts to ban TikTok while in office.)
Trump’s most recent bombastic threats come as he has said he will seek revenge on those he considers political enemies. Whether that would mean an actual imprisonment of Zuckerberg is much less clear.
The post and the attention it garnered does raise the profile of Truth Social, which is a Facebook competitor. That didn’t boost investor confidence in the platform, though. DJT stock was down slightly in late trading Tuesday and has fallen 29% in the past month.
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