Zuckerberg promised Trump crony Stephen Miller he would not ‘obstruct’ president-elect’s agenda

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Less than two months before Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta would be axing its diversity, equity and inclusion program, he assured Trump adviser Stephen Miller that he would not get in the way of the president-elect’s agenda.

The meeting between Zuckerberg, the billionaire co-founder of Facebook and CEO of Meta, and Miller, a powerful figure within Donald Trump’s inner circle and the architect of his hard-line immigration policies, happened shortly after the president-elect won the election.

Miller told Zuckerberg he had a chance to help change the United States – on Trump’s terms, sources familiar with the conversation told the New York Times.

Those terms include ditching DEI policies that corporate America, such as Meta, had openly embraced roughly four years ago during the Black Lives Matter movement.

Stephen Miller, an influential Trump adviser, is held largely responsible for creating Trump’s hard-line immigration policies. He reportedly met with Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg shortly after the election (AP)

Zuckerberg reportedly agreed and signaled that changes were coming to the company to oversees Facebook and Instagram. Sources familiar with the conversation said Zuckeblamed Meta’s former chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, for pushing inclusivity policies at the company.

In early January, those close to Zuckerberg reportedly shared the potential changes with Miller. Days later, the changes to Meta’s diversity program were made public.

The tech giant said as a result of the Supreme Court declaring some diversity programs unconstitutional it plans to end its DEI programs across training, hiring and choosing suppliers, according to an internal memo seen by Axios.

Facebook also announced it would cease its fact-checking program and instead rely on community notes – a similar function implemented on X, the platform owned by Trump’s close friend Elon Musk.

Fact-checkers, who pushed back on Trump’s false claims of mass election fraud after the 2020 election, were another ire of the president-elect.

Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, has recently become friendly with Trump. He reportedly talked DEI programs with Miller at a recent meeting (AP)

The Trump-inspired changes to the tech giant’s extraordinarily influential platform are happening as the United States prepares for a second, but far more calculated, Trump presidency.

Zuckerberg and other tech giants such as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and TikTok CEO Shou Chew have immediately flocked to the president ahead of inauguration, hoping to make nice with him before he implements sweeping changes across the country.

With four years of presidential experience, and another four years of building grudges, Trump is coming into the White House fully prepared to upend the policies he dislikes. He’s relying on influential people such as Miller to help him deliver on those.

The Independent asked the Trump–Vance transition team and Meta for comment.