Trump mocked Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos by displaying fake texts

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos They sought to flatter themselves with President Donald Trump After winning the 2024 election, he in return mocked their efforts behind their backs, according to a new book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.

Zuckerberg once sent Trump a text message containing an image of a letter written by one of his elementary-age children, in which he wrote that they were “looking forward to the golden age of America,” a slogan that Trump repeated at rallies during the presidential campaign.

During dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, Bezos discredited The Washington Post in front of Trump and called the newspaper one of his worst financial investments, months before he unsuccessfully sought a business favor from the president.

These episodes are detailed in the book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trumpa copy of which was obtained by WIRED ahead of its June 23 release. It illustrates the extraordinary scramble by some of the most powerful men in Silicon Valley to win Trump’s favor before the start of his second term.

Weeks after their meeting with Trump, Trump was still regaling his colleagues with stories about how Zuckerberg and Bezos were “kissing my ass,” according to the book. Trump was quoted as telling some guests: “You won’t believe the text messages I get from these tech guys. I gotta show you.”

The episodes also show how Trump relished the curtsies of Big Tech titans — Google’s Sundar Pichai and Apple’s Tim Cook, who also met with the incoming president — before relentlessly mocking their efforts.

“Think where those guys were in 2016,” Trump was quoted as saying of Zuckerberg and Bezos in a conversation with Elon Musk featured in the book. “They hated me. They were doing everything they could to bring me down. And look at them now.”

Musk seemed happy to humiliate his rivals, according to the book. Musk was quoted as replying: “Hinges of the highest order.”

White House spokesman Khush Desai did not respond directly to the book report. “President Trump is committed to working with all American entrepreneurs and business leaders to strengthen America’s innovative dominance, reboot critical manufacturing, and accelerate economic growth,” he said.

A person familiar with the Bezos episodes said the Amazon founder was working with Trump the same way he has worked with every president since Bill Clinton, including Donating $100 million To the Barack Obama Presidential Library, and intends to work with whoever next occupies the Oval Office. A spokesperson for Bezos’ Blue Origin did not respond to requests for comment. Musk and Meta spokespeople also did not respond to requests for comment.

The book shows Trump repeatedly mocking Zuckerberg and Bezos as they tried to curry favor with him after the 2024 election, revealing, for example, text messages he received from the Meta CEO to several guests.

When Zuckerberg arrived shortly after Thanksgiving 2024, the authors write, Trump played the national anthem over the loudspeakers. It soon became clear that this was no ordinary show, but rather a performance by a group of rioters arrested on January 6 known as the J6 Prison Choir.

Weeks later, according to the book, when Trump showed guests and visitors some of the texts sent by Zuckerberg, he stopped at a photo of the “letter to the president” written by one of the Meta CEO’s three children, the eldest of whom was 8 or 9 years old at the time.

Trump was also harsh with Bezos, whom Haberman and Swan portrayed as transactional in indulging and doubling down on Trump’s criticism of The Washington Post, as well as sending Trump a selfie featuring himself and his then-fiancée, Lauren Sanchez, via text message.