Book: Trump Privately Mocked 'Groveling' Tech Titans

President Trump, it seems, had some private fun at the expense of two of tech's biggest names. A new book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan describes Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos lavishing Trump with praise and personal outreach after his 2024 election win—only for Trump to later boast to associates that they were "kissing my a--" and to show off their messages, Wired reports.

• In Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, obtained by Wired ahead of its June 23 release, the authors recount Zuckerberg texting Trump a photo of a letter written by one of his children, saying they "looked forward to the golden age of America." It was one of the messages Trump gleefully displayed to his associates, saying, "You would not believe the texts I got from these tech guys," the authors write.

• Trump, the book says, played a recording of the national anthem by the "J6 Prison Choir" when Zuckerberg visited Mar-a-Lago. When Bezos visited, he agreed with Trump's criticisms of the Washington Post, the newspaper he owns, complaining that it was unprofitable and "the people there are terrible," the authors write.
• The authors recount a conversation between Trump and Elon Musk, with Trump saying of Bezos and Zuckerberg: "Think of where these guys were in 2016. They hated me. They were doing everything they could to knock me down. And look at them now." Musk, the authors write, said replied that his tech rivals were engaged in "first-class groveling."

• Months later, after Musk fell out with Trump, Bezos later sought the president's help for his space company Blue Origin, arguing it was risky for Musk's SpaceX to dominate US launches; Trump said he'd consider it, but instead made up with Musk and expanded SpaceX's access.
• Raw Story notes that Zuckerberg and Bezos weren't always so "accommodating" of Trump. Zuckerberg banned Trump from Facebook and Instagram after the Capitol riot. Weeks before Trump was first elected president in 2016, Bezos accused him of "eroding our democracy" by refusing to commit to accepting the election result if he didn't win.
• White House spokesman Kush Desai wouldn't directly comment on the book's reporting but said, "President Trump is committed to working with every American business and business leader to cement America's innovative dominance, re-shore critical manufacturing, and accelerate economic growth."