Meta confirmed to the media on Wednesday local time that it had donated US$1 million to US President-elect Trump’s inaugural fund. It's the latest move by the company's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, to ease a once-tense relationship with the new president. Previously, the two had dinner together at Trump's private club Mar-a-Lago last month.

The Inaugural Fund is a special fund used to support the inauguration and related activities of the President of the United States. Although the amount of US$1 million is not large, this move to submit a "letter of investment" is obviously different from the past practice of Zuckerberg and Meta. According to public records, neither Zuckerberg nor Meta donated to Trump's 2017 inaugural fund or Biden's 2021 inaugural fund.

Federal campaign finance reports show that Zuckerberg has supported congressional candidates from both parties over the years but has been largely reluctant to contribute to presidential campaigns. Zuckerberg wrote a letter to the U.S. Congress in August this year stating that in order to avoid being accused of political bias, he would stop donating during this year's election and remain neutral.

This first step of donating to Trump's inaugural fund clearly marks Zuckerberg's attempt to further improve his relationship with Trump to avoid his company becoming a target of attacks after the Trump administration takes office. During this year's election, Trump threatened to punish Zuckerberg if he tried to interfere in the election and the outcome went against him.

After the Capitol riots in early 2021 caused Trump's Facebook account to be banned, the relationship between Trump and Zuckerberg became quite tense.

Pleasing to Trump

However, Zuckerberg has actually begun to show interest in courting Trump in recent years in order to improve relations between the two parties. This progress was further brought to light after Zuckerberg publicly attended a dinner at Mar-a-Lago last month.

According to people familiar with the matter, Zuckerberg and his advisers met with Trump's nominee for secretary of state, Senator Marco Rubio, as well as three incoming senior White House advisers: Stephen Miller, Vince Haley and James Blair. Zuckerberg also gave Trump a private demonstration of Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses.

People familiar with the matter said Zuckerberg’s team told Trump’s inaugural fund before the dinner that Meta planned to donate.

Publicly, their relationship does seem to be improving. In July, Zuckerberg praised Trump's response to the assassination - Trump raised his fists and shouted "fight, fight, fight," which Zuckerberg called "one of the most powerful things I've ever seen in my life." The two spoke days after the shooting. In October, Trump told the Barstool Sports podcast that he "likes Zuckerberg better now," adding, "I really believe he's not going to be involved in influencing the election, which is good."

In recent months, Zuckerberg has also shown a greater willingness to criticize Democrats and praise Republicans. In August, he said in a letter to the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee that the Biden administration's efforts to pressure Facebook to censor coronavirus-related content in 2021 was inappropriate and vowed to reject any such behavior in the future.

Zuckerberg has also privately told other business leaders that he is optimistic about a Trump presidency, according to some people familiar with the matter. After Trump won the election last month, Zuckerberg congratulated Trump on social media and said he looked forward to working with the president-elect.

The “little thoughts” of technology giants

Currently, multiple positions nominated by Trump indicate that the Trump 2.0 government will take severe measures against large technology companies, especially social media companies. Many Republicans claim that these companies deliberately censor and obstruct the voices of conservatives.

On Tuesday, Trump nominated Andrew Ferguson to chair the Federal Trade Commission, the regulator that oversees Meta's antitrust matters. “At the FTC, we will end Big Tech’s hatred of competition and free speech,” Ferguson said in a post on X after her nomination.

In fact, as the Republican Party is about to take control of the White House and the House of Representatives and the Senate and is calling for new regulations on technology, in addition to Zuckerberg, the attitude of some other American business executives towards Trump has also undergone a rather subtle change...

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who has long been at loggerheads with Trump, also congratulated Trump on the X platform after the election, calling it a "remarkable comeback and decisive victory in politics." Bezos said at a recent conference, "What I've seen so far is that he (Trump) is calmer, more confident, and more composed than when he first won the election."