Mark Zuckerberg Reportedly Leveraged His Young Daughter to Win Over Trump as Meta Fought for Influence

Mark Zuckerberg reportedly handed Donald Trump a deeply personal bargaining chip in Meta's bid for political favour: a photograph of a handwritten letter from one of his own young daughters, in which the child wrote that she 'looked forward to the golden age of America', echoing a campaign slogan Trump used throughout 2024. The claim forms part of a wider account of how Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos courted Trump after his election win, only to be mocked behind their backs.

The detail comes from 'Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump', a forthcoming book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, due for release on 23 June 2026. An excerpt obtained by WIRED ahead of publication describes Zuckerberg texting Trump the photograph of the letter, written by one of his elementary-school-aged daughters. Meta has not disputed the book's account of the letter or the broader characterisation of Zuckerberg's outreach to the president-elect.

A Letter, A Slogan, and a Calculated Gesture

According to the book, Zuckerberg's gesture landed at a moment when Meta had every reason to want Trump's goodwill. Trump did not keep the letter private. The authors report that he later showed the photograph to associates and visitors, treating it as evidence of the lengths to which Silicon Valley's wealthiest executives were going to win him over. 'You would not believe the texts I got from these tech guys,' Trump is quoted as telling allies. 'I've got to show you.'

Representatives for Zuckerberg did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast, which first reported on the excerpt domestically. Meta has not disputed the book's account of the letter or the broader characterisation of Zuckerberg's outreach to the president-elect.

Mockery Behind Closed Doors

The book paints a picture of a president who accepted the flattery while privately ridiculing the men offering it. At Mar-a-Lago, Trump is said to have shown Tesla chief executive Elon Musk the messages he had received from Zuckerberg and Bezos, remarking: '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's reported response was blunt: 'first-class grovelling.'

Trump later told associates that Zuckerberg and Bezos, whose combined net worth Forbes estimates at roughly £356 billion ($452 billion), were 'kissing my a--', according to the authors. When Zuckerberg visited Trump shortly after Thanksgiving in 2024, the book recounts, Trump played him a rendition of the national anthem performed by the J6 Prison Choir, a group of musicians jailed over the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot.

The relationship was not always so warm. Zuckerberg banned Trump from Facebook and Instagram following the Capitol riot, a suspension that remained in place for roughly two years before being lifted ahead of the 2024 campaign. That history makes the subsequent charm offensive, including the letter from his daughter, notable to the book's authors as a measure of how completely the dynamic between the two men had shifted.

How Bezos Joined the Scramble for Trump's Favour

Zuckerberg was not alone in his efforts. The book also details a December 2024 dinner at Mar-a-Lago in which Bezos criticised The Washington Post, which he owns, telling Trump 'the people there are terrible' and that 'they don't listen', according to the authors' account. Bezos had accused Trump of 'eroding our democracy' in 2016 over his refusal to commit to accepting election results, a contrast the book uses to underline how far the billionaire's posture had shifted by 2024.

White House spokesman Kush Desai declined to directly address the book's specific claims when approached, saying only that '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.' Neither Zuckerberg nor Bezos has publicly disputed the account since the excerpt's publication.

The episode sits within a broader narrative in 'Regime Change' about what the authors describe as an 'extraordinary scramble' by Silicon Valley's most powerful executives to secure access to Trump before his second inauguration in January 2025, where Zuckerberg, Bezos and Musk were each given prominent placement. Commentators have since drawn comparisons between that dynamic and the relationship between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the country's oligarchs, in which loyalty offered no lasting guarantee of protection.

Whether the letter helped Meta's standing with the administration in any material policy sense remains unconfirmed, but the book's authors present it as emblematic of a billionaire class willing to draw even its youngest members into the project of winning over a president.