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 …
Wired Hugo Lowell
Context & Ripple Effects
Related coverage documented a broader Silicon Valley effort to improve relations with Trump before and after the election. Zuckerberg’s outreach included a January meeting tied partly to Trump’s lawsuit against Meta and later support for Musk’s DOGE work.
Bloomberg’s reporting said Zuckerberg’s embrace of Trump had not produced major dividends. The book’s account adds a power-dynamic detail: private overtures may be politically valuable to Trump without creating reciprocal leverage for the executives making them.
First-order effects
- The report puts Zuckerberg and Bezos’s private outreach into public view as an example of executives seeking favor from Trump, while giving Trump an opportunity to demonstrate dominance over prominent tech leaders.
- For Meta in particular, the disclosure compounds prior reporting that its political accommodation had not yet translated into clear benefits.
Second-order effects
- Other large tech companies weighing direct relationship-building with the administration may have less reason to treat personal outreach as a reliable route to policy influence; the reputational downside is now more visible.
- The episode can weaken executives’ bargaining position with an administration that can publicize or characterize private appeals on its own terms.
Third-order effects
- If this pattern persists, Washington engagement by major platforms may become less about stable, transactional lobbying and more dependent on personal access to political leaders.
- That shift would make corporate policy positioning more volatile: companies could still seek accommodation on issues such as AI and content policy, but with less assurance that alignment yields influence or protection.
The trend: This is one data point in the growing personalization of tech-policy power, where executive relationships with political leaders can matter as much as formal industry advocacy but offer less predictable returns.
Related: Trump · Zuckerberg · Court docs: Zuckerberg texted Musk approvingly about his work with DOG · Sources, including 30+ current and former Meta employees and 10+ US of
Related Coverage
- Takeaways From ‘Regime Change,’ Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan's Book on Trump's White House New York Times · Tim Balk
- Zuckerberg and Bezos Show Why Access Is Not Safety Implicator.ai · Marcus Schuler
- Bezos Cozied Up to Trump by Sh-ting on Washington Post Employees: Book New York Magazine · Bess Levin
- Jeff Bezos Admits Washington Post Staffed with ‘Terrible’ People Breitbart · John Nolte
- Jeff Bezos Reportedly Told Trump the Washington Post was His ‘Worst Investment’ Legal Insurrection · Mike LaChance
- Trump privately mocked Mark Zuckerberg's kids after he groveled in 2024: report Raw Story · David Edwards
- ‘The People There Are Terrible’: Bezos Reportedly Confided To Trump That He Hated The Washington Post The Daily Caller · Mark Tanos
- ‘Firstclass Groveling’: Explosive Book Details Musk And Trump Mocking Bezos And Zuckerberg Mediaite · Alex Griffing
- New Book Reveals Jeff Bezos Told President Trump Buying Washington Post Was His ‘Worst Investment’ and ‘People There Are Terrible’ The Gateway Pundit · Margaret Flavin
- Jeff Bezos reportedly told Trump the Washington Post was his ‘worst investment’ before staff cuts Fox News
- We wrote about Zuckerberg's effort to build a relationship with Trump last year for Businessweek. I think a lot of it remains relevant today. https://www.bloomberg.com/... @kurtwag8 · Kurt Wagner
- Oh boy. New excerpt in Wired from the upcoming Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan book details how Trump mockingly told people that Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos were “kissing my ass”... @kurtwag8 · Kurt Wagner
- Jeff Bezos Told Trump This Was His Worst Investment...and It's Hardly a Surprise Townhall · Matt Vespa
- Zuckerberg and Bezos Learn the Cost of Access Implicator.ai · Marcus Schuler
- Book: Trump Privately Mocked ‘Groveling’ Tech Titans Newser · Rob Quinn
- The Surprising Tactic Jeff Bezos Used to Try to Strip Elon Musk of His SpaceX Monopoly Inc.com · Moses Jeanfrancois
- Trump mocked Zuckerberg and Bezos for ‘first-class groveling’, new book claims The Next Web · Alina Maria Stan
Discussion
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@dkthomp
Derek Thompson
on x
That's a shame.
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@hugolowell
Hugo Lowell
on x
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
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@wajahatali
Wajahat Ali
on x
The worst people on Earth.
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@hugolowell
Hugo Lowell
on x
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
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@stanveuger
Stan Veuger
on x
Oof, Zuckerberg still getting bullied after all these years
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@mollyjongfast
Molly Jong-Fast
on x
The house always wins
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@therickwilson
Rick Wilson
on x
Least shocking news, ever.
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@jimstewartson
@jimstewartson
on x
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.
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@mpolymer
Marc Polymeropoulos
on x
There's gonna be such a reckoning for the sycophants..... all of their disgusting behavior is going to come out.
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@happysnarkygal
@happysnarkygal
on bluesky
Da fuck?!? — “The president had a tube of super glue in his hand, the book says, and was trying to adorn the marble fireplace mantel with new golden decorations.” — www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/u...
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@eliasisquith.blog
Elias Isquith
on bluesky
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
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@ericjgeller.com
Eric Geller
on bluesky
“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.”
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@radleybalko
Radley Balko
on bluesky
Ladies and gentlemen: our Titans of Industry — www.wired.com/story/trump-... [image]
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@wajali
Wajahat Ali
on bluesky
We have to crush these billionaire villains. — www.wired.com/story/trump-...
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@robertscotthorton
Scott Horton
on bluesky
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-...
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@adamserwer
Adam Serwer
on bluesky
What's the point of all that money if you're just going to bow and scrape like a worm www.wired.com/story/trump-... [image]
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@katie-drummond
Katie Drummond
on bluesky
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…
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@hugolowell
Hugo Lowell
on bluesky
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-...
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@eddieperez
Edward Perez
on bluesky
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]
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@camsavage00
Cam
on bluesky
if that's “first-class groveling” I wonder how Elon would categorize his own groveling [embedded post]
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@stholeary
Sean
on bluesky
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]
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@wittywebhandle
Blaise Ulysse Bernard Collins
on bluesky
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…
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@melissaryan
Melissa Ryan
on bluesky
Bootlicking the God Emperor goes about as well as most reasonable people think it would. [embedded post]
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@howardkushlan
Howard Kushlan
on bluesky
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. [Sept. 2025 NYT headline :"Mark Zuckerberg is Done With Politics"]
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@prisonculture
@prisonculture
on bluesky
On this Trump is correct and I hope he continues to mock those losers. They deserve more than mocking. [embedded post]
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@timmarchman
Tim Marchman
on bluesky
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…
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r/politics
r
on reddit
Trump Mocked Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos by Showing Off Fawning Texts
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@jeffjarvis@mastodon.social
Jeff Jarvis
on mastodon
“Mr. Trump has long been seen by critics and supporters alike as a master of media manipulation,” says the newspaper often manipulated by him. — A President Using Super Glue and Irked About Epstein: Takeaways From a New Trump Book https://www.nytimes.com/...
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@jeffjarvis@mastodon.social
Jeff Jarvis
on mastodon
Good Lord: Zuckerberg used his own child to toady to Trump. — “He showed guests a photo of a letter from one of Mr. Zuckerberg's children, who had written that they eagerly awaited ‘the golden age of America’ arriving with Mr. Trump's return.” — https://www.nytimes.com/...
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@jswatz
John Schwartz
on bluesky
Bezos whining to Trump about his Washington Post on his way to wrecking it: — “The people there are terrible,” Mr. Bezos said of the news organization's business side, according to the book. “They don't listen. My other companies, they listen.” — www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/…