Ariana Baio
Fri, June 20, 2025
THE INDEPENDENT
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg‘s recent public support for President Donald Trump did not come as a shock to those who know or have closely worked with him, with dozens of people saying some changes at the company are part of the tech billionaire’s long-held beliefs.
Dozens of people who have either worked with or known Zuckerberg told the Financial Times that the CEO’s more public shift toward Trump is just Zuckerberg displaying the more “authentic” version of himself to the world, even though he was once known to support liberal ideology and voiced opposition to Trump’s policies during the first administration.
“Mark was trying to keep his real feelings tight inside and put on a suit and cut his hair and be a good boy. But the whole time this was all one inch underneath,” an unnamed Meta insider told the outlet. “Then he said, ‘F*** it. I might as well be the person I really am.’”
Since Trump was elected in November, the Meta CEO has met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, attended the inauguration, co-hosted a reception, and changed company policy to align more closely with the administration.
Insiders told the newspaper that the tech billionaire’s unapologetic pro-“masculine energy”, free speech-loving shift is only a shift to the public.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly become a more authentic version of himself by rejecting norms and supporting President Donald Trump (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“The public is seeing him more how we have, internally, since the beginning.” Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s CTO, told FT.
Bosworth suggested that Zuckerberg’s former suit-wearing, government-obeying self was just the Meta CEO doing what he thought he was supposed to be doing.
The Independent has asked the White House for comment.
Meta declined to comment for this story.
Zuckerberg’s private shift toward more conservative figures, such as Trump, was reportedly a slow movement that was seemingly triggered by constant pushback against Facebook – Meta’s former name – from both the public and lawmakers, especially those seeking to regulate the tech industry.
One major shift came in 2020, when Biden administration officials pressured Zuckerberg to censor misinformation about Covid on his social media platform, which he did and later regretted.
Zuckerberg and other CEOs attended Trump’s inauguration in January (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
But under the Trump administration, Zuckerberg appears less concerned with appeasing the public. Appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast recently, the Meta CEO said he believes “masculine energy is good.” Even when executives challenged Zuckerberg’s comments, he refused to apologize.
Those familiar with Zuckerberg told FT that his decision to lean into hobbies such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu or wear more streetwear or cozy up to the administration is all part of Zuckerberg’s efforts to get people to like him.
“He saw that Elon Musk was popular among the tech bros,” a former insider said. “There was a push to make him cool. The core of the Social Network movie is true — he just wants people to like him.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg horrified staffers with Joe Rogan chat, transformation into ‘MAGA Mark’: report
Ariel Zilber
Fri, June 20, 2025
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Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg’s public embrace of President Trump and his apparent transformation into “MAGA Mark” has horrified staffers and executives at the social media giant, according to a report.
Zuckerberg triggered a wave of internal backlash at the Facebook and Instagram parent company following a controversial appearance on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast in January — in which the burgeoning MMA competitor said Corporate America had been “culturally neutered” and workplaces needed more “masculine energy,” according to the Financial Times.
Just days after the controversial comments, a handful of executives worked up the courage to speak out at a leadership meeting at the company’s Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, the FT reported.
Mark Zuckerberg’s public embrace of masculinity reportedly triggered a wave of internal backlash at Meta, according to a report. PowerfulJRE/YouTube
Zuckerberg made the comments during a January 2025 appearance on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. PowerfulJRE/YouTube
Zuckerberg’s conversation with Rogan reportedly left Meta staffers in “horror” and “grieving.” PowerfulJRE/YouTube
“He basically said: ‘If you don’t like it, tough sh-t’,” one person with knowledge of the conversation told FT.
Zuckerberg, who as of Friday had the world’s second highest net worth with a fortune valued by Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $245 billion, had also praised mixed-martial arts as a means of male bonding and asserted that aggression in men can be a force for good.
“There’s this crazy thing about wrestling,” he told Rogan, a former MMA commentator.
“It’s like, if you get into a fight with someone at work, you’re probably going to get fired. But if you train in MMA, you can roll hard with someone and you’re both better friends afterward.”
“In a lot of the corporate world, I think there’s this bias where you think that aggression or intensity is inherently bad,” Zuckerberg went on. “But it’s not. I actually think it’s useful. You want to be able to channel that energy.”
Zuckerberg’s transformation from Silicon Valley liberal to a Trump-friendly public figure has become a defining narrative of his leadership.
Once viewed as a quiet, hoodie-wearing technocrat, he began to appear shirtless in MMA training videos, sported gold chains, flaunted expensive watches and made regular appearances on podcasts with predominantly male, anti-woke audiences.
The Rogan interview added to a growing list of moves that critics view as aligning Zuckerberg — and the company — with right-wing politics. His public praise for Trump and the rollback of content moderation teams have only fueled those concerns, according to the report.
Zuckerberg has transformed his public image from tech nerd to an MMA-loving alpha male. Mark Zuckerberg/Instagram
But those who know Zuckerberg intimately told FT that the Meta boss is simply showing the public a side of him that they have long been familiar with only in private.
“When he was 19 years old, I think he had an idea in his head of what a CEO was supposed to be like and he was trying to be that, especially in public,” Meta’s chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth, told FT, adding that people are now seeing the “authentic” Zuckerberg.
“The public is seeing him more how we have, internally, since the beginning,” Bosworth said.
A Meta spokesperson declined to comment.
Zuckerberg’s newly revealed persona is gaining attention at a time when he has set his company on a war footing in the ultra-competitive race to gain market share in artificial intelligence.
Last week, Meta acquired the start-up Scale AI for $14.3 billion — a deal that gives Zuckerberg’s company a 49% non-voting stake as part of its push to close the gap with OpenAI and Google in the AI arms race.
Zuckerberg and other Silicon Valley bigwigs including Jeff Bezos (third from left), Google CEO Sundar Pichai (second from left) and Tesla CEO Elon Musk (far left) have sought to curry favor with President Trump. APMore
The deal secures Meta access to Scale’s infrastructure and talent, including its founder Alexandr Wang, who now leads Meta’s new “superintelligence” unit.
This move has triggered backlash from rivals, with OpenAI and Google cutting ties with Scale over conflict-of-interest concerns.
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