Trump: Zuckerberg will spend the rest of his life in prison if he interferes in the election again

Author: Alex Isenstadt, Politico; Translated by Wuzhu, Golden Finance

Former President Donald Trump writes in a new book to be published next week that Mark Zuckerberg conspired against him during the 2020 election and said the Meta CEO "would spend the rest of his life in jail" if he did it again.

It's the latest attack from Trump on Zuckerberg, whom he has repeatedly accused of interfering in the last presidential election. Meanwhile, Meta has taken steps to assure conservatives that it will not influence this year's campaign.

Saving America, a coffee table book written by Trump that will be released on September 3, includes an undated photo of Trump meeting with Zuckerberg at the White House.

Below the photo, Trump wrote that Zuckerberg "will come to see me in the Oval Office. He will bring his very beautiful wife to dinner and act as nice as anyone, all the while plotting to install shameful lock boxes and truly plotting against the President," Trump added, referring to the $420 million donation Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, made to fund election infrastructure during the 2020 election.

"He told me there is no one like Trump at Facebook. But at the same time, for some reason, he is using it against me," Trump continued. "We are watching him very closely, and if he does anything illegal this time, he will spend the rest of his life in jail - just like everyone else who cheated in the 2024 Presidential Election."

Trump has made similar comments about Zuckerberg before. Trump wrote in a July Truth Social post that if elected he would "go after election fraudsters with an unprecedented intensity and put them in jail for long periods of time. We already know who you are. Don't do it! Zuckerbergs, be careful!"

Meta has been criticized by Republicans for suppressing content that could harm President Joe Biden in 2020, most notably stories about the then-candidate's son Hunter. At the time, the FBI warned that the stories could be part of a Russian-orchestrated operation to influence the election.

Zuckerberg wrote to the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee on Monday acknowledging that suppressing the story was a mistake and saying it "has since made clear that the story was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we should not have downplayed it."

In the same letter, Zuckerberg wrote that the Biden administration had tried to "pressure" Meta to downplay certain content about the pandemic, and he said the White House was "wrong" to do so. Zuckerberg also said he would not provide similar funding for election infrastructure ahead of this year's election, but he also stressed that the funding was not intended to be partisan.

Saving America is published by Winning Team Publishing, a company co-founded by Donald Trump Jr. and Trump ally Sergio Gore.