President-elect Trump should roll back efforts in Europe and other countries to suppress the US tech industry, according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg, who has been quick to ingratiate himself with Trump since the president-elect won the 2024 presidential election, called for stronger government support during an appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” radio show last Friday.
“I think it's a strategic advantage for the United States that we have a lot of the most powerful companies in the world, and I think that should be part of the US strategy going forward to defend that,” Zuckerberg said. “One of the things I'm optimistic about with President Trump is that I think he just wants America to win.”
Zuckerberg added that EU antitrust officials have imposed a series of harsh fines totaling “more than $30 billion” over the past decade or so. Last July, the European Union charged Meta with violating a comprehensive technology competition law — which could ultimately result in fines of up to 10% of its global revenue, or roughly $13.5 billion.
Zuckerberg, who met Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, said the fines are “almost like tariffs” and have become “kind of like an EU-wide policy on how to deal with American technology.”
“If another country was messing with another industry that we care about, the US government would probably find some way to put pressure on them, but I think what happened here is actually quite the opposite,” Zuckerberg said.
Trump has historically clashed with Zuckerberg and Meta — once referring to Facebook as the “true enemy of the people” and repeatedly accusing the social media giant of censorship and election interference.
However, Zuckerberg has taken several steps to mend relations with the incoming administration — including appointing a Republican as the company's top policy executive, ending fact-checking programs and killing DEI initiatives that have long drawn the ire of conservatives.
Zuckerberg is not the only Big Tech executive who has pressed Trump for comment on enforcement actions in Europe.
Last October, Trump said he received a phone call from Apple CEO Tim Cook, who complained that the iPhone maker was facing billions of dollars in fines abroad.
“Two hours ago, three hours ago, (Cook) called me,” Trump told podcaster Patrick Pete David at the time. “He said the European Union had just fined us $15 billion,” he said. Trump added: “On top of that, the European Union imposed another fine on them worth two billion dollars.”
During his nearly three-hour interview with Rogan, Zuckerberg said Biden officials phoned Meta executives to “yell” and “fuck” them while demanding that any negative posts about the coronavirus vaccine on Facebook be removed.
He also criticized Apple's competitor, Meta, asserting that the company “hasn't really invented anything great in a while.”
