Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has introduced a huge list of changes and hires that appear directly calculated to ingratiate himself to President-elect Donald Trump — but it's unlikely to give him the mileage and goodwill he's hoping for, political strategist Chai Komanduri told MSNBC's Ari Melber on Tuesday's edition of "The Beat."
"What do you see in the politics here?" asked Melber. "Zuckerberg previously had different policies, he said he had frankly different views, so had Trump lost, had the vote swung a point and a half the other way, presumably, we would be moving past some of this."
"I think what happened was Mark Zuckerberg saw what happened with Elon Musk," said Komanduri. "Musk tied himself to Trump and became even richer and far more powerful."
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That being said, Komanduri added, while Zuckerberg could be in an "ideal position" to provide "a whole lot of support" to Trump and his eventual ideological heirs, he probably won't reap the same benefits Musk did. "The problem, I think, for Mark Zuckerberg is he's not getting in on the ground floor, he's getting in on the top floor, and the elevator has only one way to go, which is down."
"What do you think, Chai, about the change in the normal corporate machinations?" said Melber. In the past, he noted, corporations relied on "lobbyists, intermediaries, a lot of executives like to have the distance, but Trump has demanded something different and he seems to be getting it," with Zuckerberg's video announcement of new policies, effectively begging the MAGA movement to support his company.
"This is beyond even simple greed," said Komanduri. "The innovation that Facebook had was the Like button. And if you watch the great movie 'The Social Network,' ... he was a guy who wanted people to like him. He was a guy who was basically pushed into lockers who looked a lot like Dana White, and rather than be a rebel and stay an outsider, or go full science nerd, which is what Bill Gates did, he said no, I want the guy who's pushing me in the locker to really like me. And he wants Trump and MAGA, the people who once bullied him and looked down on him, to like him. And that's what you see, a tremendous need and personal desire by Mark Zuckerberg to have the people who looked down on him once, to like him."
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