Former President Trump is claiming Mark Zuckerberg, the tech executive and founder of Facebook, told him he would not vote for a Democrat in this year’s election.
“You know, I got so many nice calls from people I really don’t know,” Trump told reporter Olivia Nuzzi after she had asked him about the assassination attempt he faced this summer.
The former president mentioned Jeff Bezos and Zuckerberg as executives who he said called him after the shooting in Butler, Pa.
“Mark Zuckerberg called up and said, ‘I’ve never supported a Republican before, but there’s no way I can vote for a Democrat in this election.’ He’s a guy that, his parents, everybody was always Democrat,” Trump told Nuzzi.
He continued, saying Zuckerberg told him, “I will never vote for the people running against you after watching what you did, so I mean, people really appreciated it. I don’t — I think it was very natural what I did. I think it was natural.”
A spokesperson for Meta denied Trump’s story about Zuckerberg, saying, “as Mark has said publicly, he’s not endorsing anybody in this race and has not communicated to anybody how he intends to vote.”
Zuckerberg, who is worth more than an estimated $170 billion, is one of the most closely watched executives in the tech and media space. Facebook has come under intense scrutiny in recent election cycles over its handling of misinformation on the platform and the company’s collection of user data.