One of the most iconic moments in American political history moved even Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
In a Thursday night interview with Emily Chang on Bloomberg’s “The Circuit” on Thursday, Zuckerberg spoke about the powerful moment Saturday when former President Donald Trump struggled to his feet on stage to encourage his supporters after he was shot in the ear by a would-be assassin.
“On a personal note, seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag is one of the most bada** things I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said.
“And I think, look, at some level as an American, it’s, like, hard to not get kind of emotional about that spirit and that fight, and I think that that’s why a lot of people like the guy,” the Facebook co-founder said.
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Trump touched on that moment in his nomination acceptance speech Thursday at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
“When I rose, surrounded by Secret Service, the crowd was confused because they thought I was dead,” the former president said. “And there was great, great sorrow. I could see that on their faces as I looked out. They didn’t know I was looking out; they thought it was over. But I could see it, and I wanted to do something to let them know I was OK.
“I raised my right arm, looked at the thousands and thousands of people that were breathlessly waiting and started shouting, ‘Fight, fight, fight.’
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“Once my clenched fist went up — and it was high into the air, you’ve all seen that — the crowd realized I was OK and roared with pride for our country like no crowd I have ever heard before. Never heard anything like it.
“For the rest of my life, I will be grateful for the love shown by that giant audience of patriots that stood bravely on that fateful evening in Pennsylvania.”
Zuckerberg did not directly donate to either candidate in 2020, but his $400 million to help election offices as they were churning out mail-in ballots was seen as a way to help President Joe Biden.
However, he told Chang he will not back either Trump or Biden this time around.
“I’ve done some stuff personally in the past. I’m not planning on doing that this time, and that includes, you know, not endorsing either of the candidates,” Zuckerberg said.
Mark Zuckerberg said that Donald Trump’s immediate reaction after being shot was “badass” and inspiring — without endorsing the former president.
The Meta CEO spoke exclusively to @emilychangtv on The Circuit https://t.co/Y1s1HmhotX pic.twitter.com/DQI10NHzhq
— Bloomberg (@business) July 19, 2024
Elsewhere in the interview, Zuckerberg indicated he is hoping to make Meta — which owns and operates Facebook and Instagram — less of a centerpiece in the debate over the presidential election, according to Bloomberg.
“The main thing that I hear from people is that they actually want to see less political content on our services because they come to our services to connect with people,” he said, noting that the tech giant’s algorithms are putting less emphasis on political content.
“I think you’re going to see our services play less of a role in this election than they have in the past,” he said.
Zuckerberg also shrugged off his platforms’ rivalry with TikTok, saying competition is “good.”
“I think we’re doing pretty well here. We’re gaining market share. So I don’t know. They’ll go do what they need to do, but I think we’re gonna be fine and we’re gonna continue doing well in this space either way,” he said.
The Meta CEO dodged a question about whether TikTok should be banned in the United States because of its ties to communist China.
“That’s above my pay grade,” he said.
