Donald Trump Attacks Mark Zuckerberg By Calling Him A Villain, What's The Facebook Boss's Reaction?

Donald Trump is furious that he lost the US election. (photo: doc. unsplash)

JAKARTA - Former US President Donald Trump attacked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an angry statement. Trump has accused the $400 million donation the Facebook boss made to the local election office last year of turning him into a criminal.

"Mark Zuckerberg, in my opinion, a criminal, was allowed to spend more than 400 million (US dollars) and therefore could change the course of the presidential election, and nothing happened to Facebook," Trump said in an emailed statement to Facebook. his supporters.

Trump appeared to be referring to the $400 million that Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan donated to the local election office last year. The money is to help them adjust to changing voting habits due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The funds were spent on items, including personal protective equipment such as masks and gloves, and equipment for processing postal ballots, the Associated Press reported.

There's no evidence that Zuckerberg's donation was criminal or even partisan, but Trump's comments echo the broader Republican anger over the move.

In October last year, a Republican legal group attempted to prevent the money from being used in nine states. They even called it a "dangerous, coordinated and covert campaign to manipulate this year's election."

Zuckerberg denied that the funds would be used on a partisan basis. Instead, he said in a statement in October last year: "Since our initial donation, there have been several lawsuits in an attempt to prevent the use of these funds, based on claims that the organization receiving the donation has a partisan agenda."

“This is wrong. These funds will serve communities across the country – urban, rural and suburban – and are allocated by non-partisan organizations,” Zuckerberg said, as quoted by the media last year.

Trump, who has continued to make unsubstantiated accusations of widespread election fraud since leaving office in January, also made similar remarks about Zuckerberg in an angry letter to the Washington Post published Wednesday, October 27.

He cited the portion of Zuckerberg's donation that had been allocated to the voting system in Pennsylvania as evidence of the Facebook founder's efforts to "disrupt" the state's election results.

Pennsylvania ultimately voted for Joe Biden and, like the rest of the United States, attempts by Trump allies to challenge the outcome were unsuccessful.