Politics seem to be seeping into every possible corner of our lives, from everyday interactions to even the most lighthearted of social media.
Information has long been an issue in the era of the internet, but it’s not an easy problem to solve. It’s a double edged sword: The web provides people everywhere with far better access to information, but parsing which information is reliable can confuse even the most adept users. It largely comes down to who to trust, something that’s etched a line between reputable sources and notorious misinformation spreaders.
While we all know that there’s very little left that’s trustworthy on NotTwitter, Elon Musk’s social media cesspool, Mark Zuckerberg‘s Facebook has always been a different beast. Once a purely personal source of connection, now a far more widespread social media site, Facebook occupied a strange territory for years where news was concerned.
There’s no denying Musk’s clearly right-leaning tendencies, but Zuckerberg isn’t quite so obvious. He’s made moves in the past that seemingly orient him with Democrats, but in more recent years — particularly 2024 — he seemed to align himself far more with Donald Trump. It appears he may have switched political sides at some point in the last decade or so, but does Zucks actually identify as a Republican?
Is Mark Zuckerberg a Republican or a Democrat?
Optics are well and good, but they only tell us a portion of the story. There’s plenty of evidence indicating that Zuckerberg has shifted political parties in recent years, but the Facebook founder himself will almost certainly deny any blatant political sway to the right or the left.
That doesn’t make it true, of course. Zuckerberg has stated on several occasions that he is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, and while he is a registered voter, he’s not affiliated with either party. Which, on paper, makes him a fully independent voter who likely makes decisions on an election-by-election basis.
But the shifting priorities of the Facebook CEO tell a different story. Zuckerberg’s political activity was defined, around a decade back, by his work with Forward U.S., a group aiming to find a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, a distinctly Democrat-leaning objective. But he’s also put his money toward both Democrats and Republicans in the past, donating to campaigns on both sides of the aisle.
It would have seemed, back in 2013, that Zuckerberg was an actually bipartisan citizen looking to donate to those who champion efforts he’s invested in. But in 2024, those optics have changed, and Zuckerberg’s motivations seem far more centered around something near and dear to Trump’s own heart: money. The changes he’s making on Facebook (who needs fact checkers when you have alternative facts!), the meetings he’s taking, and the people he’s supporting all point to a major shift in Zuckerberg’s politics, but not a surprising one.
Ol’ Zuck is simply following the path so many have embarked on before. He was middle of the road for years, but now he’s a billionaire. He’s incredibly wealthy, and the Democrats aren’t aiming to benefit the mega-wealthy. But you know who is? Mega-wealthy Trump, who has historically ensured that people like Zuckerberg come out better at the end of his presidency than they entered it.
So it’s little surprise to see Zuckerberg announcing new aims and shifting his ideals in a distinctly Trumpian direction. He’ll likely never fess up to being a Republican, because he’s really not. He’s a billionaire, regardless of political leaning, and he’s simply putting his interests first, just like all the other billionaires out there.
Published: Jan 7, 2025 04:08 pm