Zuckerberg praises Trump’s “badass” reaction to assassination attempt, but stops short of endorsing him

 Tech mogul Mark Zuckerberg of Meta Platforms has praised former President Donald Trump's "badass" response to the July 13 assassination attempt on his life, but stopped short of endorsing him.

The Facebook founder expressed his admiration for Trump during a July 18 interview with Bloomberg News, five days after the failed attempt to kill the former president at a Pennsylvania campaign rally. Secret Service agents neutralized the would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, but not before he managed to injure Trump's ear. One rally attendee died, while two suffered critical injuries and eventually recovered.

"Seeing Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag is one of the most badass things I've ever seen in my life," Zuckerberg told the outlet. "On some level as an American, it's like hard to not get kind of emotional about that spirit and that fight, and I think that that's why a lot of people like the guy."

But despite his positive comments, Zuckerberg stopped short of endorsing the real estate mogul for the 2024 presidential election. He added that Facebook, one of four services under Meta, has already begun reducing the amount of political content shown to users.

"I'm not planning to be involved in the election. The main thing that I hear from people is that they actually want to see less political content on our services because they come to our services to connect with people. I think you're going to see our services play less of a role in this election than they have in the past."

Zuckerberg and Trump have a fraught history spanning years. During Trump's first term as president in 2016, many of his posts on Facebook were flagged for misinformation and policy violations. Meta even suspended Trump's official accounts on Facebook and Instagram in 2021 over the Jan. 6 false-flag riot, only reinstating them two years later.

At the time, Zuckerberg claimed that Trump was using his account to "undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power" to President Joe Biden. This prompted Trump to launch Truth Social.

Trump has no plans to forgive Zuckerberg

Trump has not yet given a response to Zuckerberg's comments. But prior to those, Trump showed no signs of forgiving the tech mogul and has even threatened to put Zuckerberg behind bars.

In a July 17 interview with Bloomberg News, the former president aired out his grievances with the Meta CEO as part of a discussion about regulating Big Tech. "Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm for TikTok because you need competition. If you don't have TikTok, you have Facebook and Instagram – and … you know, that's Zuckerberg," Trump said.

In a July 9 post on Truth Social, Trump vowed to imprison "election fraudsters" if he wins in November – explicitly naming Zuckerberg. The post stated: "We already know who you are. Don't do it. Zuckerbucks, be careful."  

Trump also demanded Zuckerberg's prosecution last year, accusing the Meta CEO of election misconduct.

"He cheated on the [elections]. The whole system is rigged," Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time. "Why isn't he being prosecuted? The Democrats only know how to cheat. America isn't going to take it much longer."