Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is not interesting in running for president, apparently.
“No,” the rich geek told BuzzFeed News when asked about his interest in becoming commander-in-chief. Zuckerberg said he was focused on running Facebook and developing his and his wife’s charitable foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. He did not, however, respond to a follow up questions as to whether he would explicitly rule out a run for political office in the future.
Many have speculated that Zuckerberg was at least laying the groundwork for a future career in politics. The Facebook bro publicly announced that his New Year’s Resolution for 2017 was to visit every state in the country and interact with normal American “folks” — something people typically do when they’re running for political office.
“Will Mark Zuckerberg Be Our Next President?” Vanity Fair asked in a recent article. People close to him believe “he wants to be emperor.” Zuckerberg recently signed a stock restructuring agreement with Facebook that specifically includes a clause that would allow him to run for political office and maintain control of the company.
Emails published by WikiLeaks included an exchange in which Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg reached out to Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta to arrange a meeting with Zuckerberg and “folks who can inform his understanding about effective political operations to advance public policy goals on social oriented objectives.”
In other news, Zuckerberg is suing a bunch of Native Hawaiian families to keep them away from his $100 million beachfront estate.
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