Executives sucking up to Trump now have to factor in the ‘first buddy’

The New York Times once wrote a fascinating story about how Mark Zuckerberg, the 40-year-old Meta CEO, had become disillusioned with the lefty politics he’d once promoted. Zuck was “declining to engage with Washington except when necessary,” “stopped supporting programs at his philanthropy that could be perceived as partisan” and “tamped down employee activism at Meta.” In short, the Times concluded, he was over it.

The New York Times once wrote a story about how Mark Zuckerberg, the 40-year-old Meta CEO, had become disillusioned with the politics he’d once promoted. Zuck was “declining to engage with Washington except when necessary,” “stopped supporting programs at his philanthropy that could be perceived as partisan” and “tamped down employee activism at Meta.” In short, the Times concluded, he was over it, even as he was trying to smooth over his long-strained relationship with Donald Trump. But that was a long time ago — all the way back in September — and a quite a lot has changed. Now, as my colleague Clare Duffy reports, Zuck is angling for an “active role” in shaping tech policy in the incoming administration — potentially setting himself up to work directly with a president who recently threatened to jail him for life and a rival tech billionaire who once challenged him to a cage match. What happened in the two-ish months between the Times’ story and today is pretty simple: Trump won reelection, obviously. And in this bareknuckle world of corporate executive leadership, Zuckerberg and the like have little choice but to spin up some flattery and lay it on thick.