Zuckerberg promised Trump crony Stephen Miller he would not ‘obstruct’ president-elect’s agenda

Ariana Baio
·2-min read
Zuckerberg promised Trump crony Stephen Miller he would not ‘obstruct’ president-elect’s agenda

Less than two months before Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta would be axing its diversity, equity and inclusion program, he assured Trump adviser Stephen Miller that he would not get in the way of the president-elect’s agenda.

The meeting between Zuckerberg, the billionaire co-founder of Facebook and CEO of Meta, and Miller, a powerful figure within Donald Trump’s inner circle and the architect of his hard-line immigration policies, happened shortly after the president-elect won the election.

Miller told Zuckerberg he had a chance to help change the United States – on Trump’s terms, sources familiar with the conversation told the New York Times.

Those terms include ditching DEI policies that corporate America, such as Meta, had openly embraced roughly four years ago during the Black Lives Matter movement.

Stephen Miller, an influential Trump adviser, is held largely responsible for creating Trump’s hard-line immigration policies. He reportedly met with Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg shortly after the election (AP)
Stephen Miller, an influential Trump adviser, is held largely responsible for creating Trump’s hard-line immigration policies. He reportedly met with Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg shortly after the election (AP)

Zuckerberg reportedly agreed and signaled that changes were coming to the company to oversees Facebook and Instagram. Sources familiar with the conversation said Zuckeblamed Meta’s former chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, for pushing inclusivity policies at the company.

ADVERTISEMENT

In early January, those close to Zuckerberg reportedly shared the potential changes with Miller. Days later, the changes to Meta’s diversity program were made public.

The tech giant said as a result of the Supreme Court declaring some diversity programs unconstitutional it plans to end its DEI programs across training, hiring and choosing suppliers, according to an internal memo seen by Axios.

Facebook also announced it would cease its fact-checking program and instead rely on community notes – a similar function implemented on X, the platform owned by Trump’s close friend Elon Musk.

Fact-checkers, who pushed back on Trump’s false claims of mass election fraud after the 2020 election, were another ire of the president-elect.

Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, has recently become friendly with Trump. He reportedly talked DEI programs with Miller at a recent meeting (AP)
Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, has recently become friendly with Trump. He reportedly talked DEI programs with Miller at a recent meeting (AP)

The Trump-inspired changes to the tech giant’s extraordinarily influential platform are happening as the United States prepares for a second, but far more calculated, Trump presidency.

ADVERTISEMENT

Zuckerberg and other tech giants such as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and TikTok CEO Shou Chew have immediately flocked to the president ahead of inauguration, hoping to make nice with him before he implements sweeping changes across the country.

With four years of presidential experience, and another four years of building grudges, Trump is coming into the White House fully prepared to upend the policies he dislikes. He’s relying on influential people such as Miller to help him deliver on those.

The Independent asked the Trump–Vance transition team and Meta for comment.

Latest stories

  • Nvidia CEO says not attending Trump's inauguration

    Nvidia's chief executive Jensen Huang said on Friday he will not be attending U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration, but will instead be "on the road" celebrating the Lunar New Year with employees and their families. Asked by reporters outside Nvidia's new year party in Taipei whether he had talked with the incoming Trump administration about the new artificial intelligence export control rules the outgoing Biden administration unveiled this week, Huang said, "not yet". He also said he had met C.C. Wei, the chairman of Nvidia's main supplier TSMC for lunch where they talked about ramping up production of Nvidia's most advanced AI chips Blackwell.

  • ‘Thrown under the bus’: Najib disagrees he’s to blame in 1MDB, claims was uneasy with Jho Low

    PUTRAJAYA, Jan 17 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak today disagreed with Low Taek Jho’s attempt to “throw him under the bus” and...

  • Why Michelle Obama will skip Trump’s inauguration

    The former first lady will not attend the president-elect’s inauguration and also missed Jimmy Carter’s state funeral in Washington DC earlier this month

  • Trump Didn’t Bother Telling Mel Gibson About His New Job

    Mel Gibson is just as surprised as you are. The controversial Hollywood star apparently found out about his new diplomatic posting at the same time as the rest of the world when President-elect Donald Trump announced he would be appointing actors Sylvester Stallone, Jon Voight, and Gibson as his “special ambassadors” to Hollywood. In true Trump fashion, he said the new roles were part of his effort to the American film industry “bigger, better, and stronger than ever before.”

  • US trade envoy finds China's shipbuilding policies warrant 'urgent action'

    The US Trade Representative said Thursday that its probe into China's practices in the shipbuilding, maritime and logistics sectors found that Beijing's undermining of fair competition warranted "urgent action.""Beijing's targeted dominance of these sectors undermines fair, market-oriented competition, increases economic security risks, and is the greatest barrier to revitalization of US industries," USTR Katherine Tai said in a statement.

  • West Refuses To 'Recognise 1 Truth' About Russia Which Means Europe Has 'No Chance' Against Putin

    Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a dire warning to his allies today.

  • Disarmed, forced into ‘hibernation’ or the rise of a new insurgency: Hamas faces uncertain future

    As crowds of Palestinians on Wednesday night cheered in Gaza’s shattered streets at the arrival of a long-awaited ceasefire deal, a car carrying veiled militants joined the celebrations.

  • Taiwan carries out first execution in five years, upsetting EU, rights groups

    Taiwan carried out its first execution in five years late on Thursday, upsetting both rights groups and the European Union which called on the government to maintain its de facto moratorium on the death penalty. Despite Taiwan's reputation as Asia's most liberal democracy, the death penalty remains broadly popular according to opinion polls, though in recent years it has only rarely been carried out and violent crime is relatively low. In September, Taiwan's constitutional court ruled that the death penalty is constitutional but only for the most serious crimes with the most rigorous legal scrutiny, after considering a petition brought by 37 people who were then on death row.

  • What is Malaysia’s biggest risks as we go into 2025? WEF study says economic downturn top of list

    The Global Risks Report 2025 highlights economic downturn as Malaysia’s top risk, alongside concerns over labour shor...

  • South Korean president sits silently through 10 hours of questioning

    Yoon Suk Yeol ‘simply refused to speak’

  • Biden warns of Trump 'oligarchy' in dark farewell speech

    US President Joe Biden urged Americans Wednesday to stand guard against a "dangerous" oligarchy forming under Donald Trump as he delivered a dark farewell address before stepping down next week.Signing off as Trump returns for a second term on Monday, Biden told Americans: "Now it's your turn to stand guard."

  • China probes US chip subsidies over 'harm' to Chinese mature node chipmakers

    BEIJING (Reuters) -China will launch an investigation into U.S. government subsidies to its semiconductor sector over alleged harm caused to Chinese mature node chipmakers, the commerce ministry said on Thursday. Unlike the cutting-edge chips that power artificial intelligence models, mature node chips are cheaper, easier to manufacture, and used for less complex tasks, including home appliances and communications systems. The investigation is the latest salvo in Beijing's policy of retaliating against Washington's ever-broadening scope of restrictions targeting China's semiconductor industry, which the Biden administration has alleged could go on to dominate global supply chains and help the Chinese military become technologically superior to its U.S. counterpart.

  • Europe has two years to resolve jet fighter fiasco, Airbus boss warns

    Europe is running out of time to avoid wasting billions on building two rival fighter jets, the head of Airbus warned.

  • Trump's US Treasury pick Bessent says dollar must remain world's reserve currency

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Scott Bessent, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's choice to head the Treasury Department, on Wednesday vowed to ensure that the dollar remains the world's reserve currency as he laid out a vision for a "new economic golden age". Bessent, who faces questioning before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, said in prepared testimony that the new Trump administration must prioritize productive investment that grows the economy over "wasteful spending that drives inflation." "We must secure supply chains that are vulnerable to strategic competitors, and we must carefully deploy sanctions as part of a whole-of-government approach to address our national security requirements," Bessent said in the remarks.

  • 'It starts now': South Korea's President Yoon defiant as police closed in

    As 3,000 riot police swarmed his hillside villa on Wednesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol huddled with party loyalists, telling them that people were increasingly realising the country's legal system had been hijacked by leftist forces. "People are now seeing how serious the situation is," the impeached president told the gathering, according to one lawmaker present, Yoon Sang-hyun. Yoon cited the support of thousands who have taken to the streets to defend him since he was impeached by parliament over his short-lived Dec. 3 martial law decree and criminally accused of insurrection, the second lawmaker said.

  • Hong Kong mogul Jimmy Lai grilled over US, Taiwan ties

    Jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai testified on Thursday that he brokered meetings between former Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen and American establishment figures, with prosecutors alleging that he colluded with foreign forces.On Thursday, Lai said he set up a paid "consultancy" arrangement in 2017 where retired United States general Jack Keane and former US deputy secretary of defence Paul Wolfowitz would meet with Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's leader at the time.

  • Trump moves inauguration indoors to chamber Jan 6 rioters ‘desecrated’ four years ago: Live updates

    President-elect says he has ordered inauguration and speeches to take place in the Capitol Rotunda ‘as was used by Ronald Reagan in 1985’

  • Ukrainian brigade pioneers remote-controlled ground assaults

    Sparing soldiers for the infantry assault that came later, the unmanned device was operated at a distance by Ukraine's Khartiia Brigade in the latest advance in a conflict that has been defined by a technology race on both sides. The unit said it was the first documented machine-only ground assault in Ukraine's war with Russia. "Our task is to maximally transfer reconnaissance, clearing operations and assaults... to machines that we can afford to lose," said unit spokesperson Volodymyr Dehtiarov.

  • Israel-Gaza: Why the ceasefire hostage deal is stumbling at the final hurdle

    As the Israeli cabinet stalls over approving the ceasefire deal with Hamas, World Affairs Editor Sam Kiley looks at where the deal goes from here

  • Ukraine-Russia latest: Putin’s forces locked onto French plane as North Korea troops may ‘be dead by April’

    “This aggressive Russian action is not acceptable,” the French defense minister said