New book: Trump mocked Zuckerberg and Bezos by showing associates their fawning texts, saying they were “kissing my ass”; Musk called it “First-class groveling”
“You would not believe the texts I got from these tech guys,” NYT reporters Maggie Haberman …
WiredHugo Lowell
Context & Ripple Effects
Related coverage documents a sustained effort by Zuckerberg and other Silicon Valley leaders to improve ties with Trump, beginning with pre-election outreach and continuing through a January 2025 meeting tied partly to Trump’s lawsuit against Meta.
That effort has included alignment on politically sensitive matters: court documents described Zuckerberg offering Musk help addressing posts targeting DOGE staff, while later reporting said Meta’s outreach had not produced major dividends. The book’s account adds a reputational dimension to that unequal relationship.
First-order effects
The allegations could make Zuckerberg’s and Bezos’s private outreach more costly publicly, turning access-seeking communications into evidence of dependence on Trump’s favor.
Musk’s quoted criticism sharpens the contrast between his public posture and the accommodation attributed to other tech leaders, increasing pressure on them to explain or recalibrate such outreach.
Second-order effects
Other technology executives seeking engagement with the administration may become more cautious about the tone and confidentiality of direct communications, particularly where they can be politically weaponized.
For Meta, the account reinforces the risk that political accommodation can alienate stakeholders without reliably delivering policy or legal benefits, as the related reporting already suggests.
Third-order effects
If executive access to government becomes increasingly contingent on visible personal deference, corporate Washington strategy may shift further from predictable institutional advocacy toward leader-centric relationship management.
The broader effect could be a more fragmented tech-policy environment: companies may pursue administration-specific alignment while still facing unresolved disputes over AI oversight, content moderation, and state-level regulation.
The trend: This is one data point in Silicon Valley’s broader move to treat political access as a core operating risk, even as the returns on public alignment remain uncertain.
NEW @WIRED: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sought to ingratiate themselves to Trump after the 2024 election — who in return mocked them behind their backs, per new book by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan — Zuckerberg sent Trump a photo of a letter one
NEW: We obtained an advance copy of the new Haberman/Swan book, which has some wild details about Trump mocking Zuckerberg and Bezos by mockingly showing their obsequious texts—including a photo of a letter from one of Zuck's kids—to his cronies. @hugolowell.bsky.social has the s…
I don't know which is worse, the slavish obsequiousness of these tech billionaires; or the familiar spectacle of our deeply damaged president reveling in his power over others. — Assholes all around. [embedded post]
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sought to ingratiate themselves with President Donald Trump after he won the 2024 election, and in return he mocked their efforts behind their backs, according to a new book. www.wired.com/story/trump-...
NEW: The brilliant @hugolowell.bsky.social got his hands on Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan's upcoming Trump book. — It includes multiple anecdotes of tech execs, including Zuck and Bezos, seeking to ingratiate themselves with the president...and Trump brutally mocking them i…
NEW: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon's Jeff Bezos sought to ingratiate themselves to Trump after the 2024 election — who in return mocked their efforts behind their backs, per new book by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan that @wired.com obtained www.wired.com/story/trump-...
After the 2024 election, Zuckerberg texted Trump a photo of a letter written by one of his young kids, who wrote that they “looked forward to the golden age of America,” a campaign slogan Trump had repeated at rallies
Elon Musk purchased Twitter, purchased Donald Trump, and purchased the election, netting him over a trillion dollars in additional wealth. It is the greatest con in the history of mankind.
“Weeks after they met with Trump, he was still regaling associates with stories of how Zuckerberg and Bezos were ‘kissing my ass’ ... 'You would not believe the texts I got from these tech guys. I've got to show you,' Trump is quoted as telling some guests.”
if there was any doubt about whether Bezos gutted WaPo for reasons beyond his personal predilections — that his goal was to curry favor with Trump by defanging and diminishing a source of opposition to MAGA — this should put that to rest
These Trump books are disgusting. This isnt a scoop; this is a promo. This is why no one trusts media anymore. Sitting on news for a book is not journalism. [embedded post]
I, for one, don't care about any Journalist that has given up contemporary reporting in favor of holding scoops indefinitely until it's a book. — It's a sign of moral bankruptcy and a symptom of the wider collapse of Journalism as a profession rather than a tool of Capital. [e…
I have never forgotten this piece. The funniest part was it mentioned how Zuckerberg had called trump twice over that summer. Odd way to be done with politics. [embedded post]