Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg might be preparing to run for political office in the future. Speculation has swirled since Zuckerberg announced his New Year’s Resolution for 2017: To visit every state in the country by the end of the year.
The ginger-haired billionaire has already begun his journey to America’s heartland, and has been posting about on Facebook, naturally. “We may come from different backgrounds, but we all want to find purpose and authenticity in something bigger than ourselves,” Zuckerberg wrote in a recent Facebook post after a trip to Texas.
The Zuck’s desire to interact with average Americans in order to find a common purpose seems at odds with the multiple lawsuits he recently filed in Hawaii to keep native peoples with ancestral land rights away from his $100 million beachfront property.
When Zuckerberg purchased the 700-acre Kauai estate in 2014, the land included, and still does, nearly a dozen small parcels of land owned by Native Hawaiian families who have a legal right to traverse the property.
The Facebook founder is suing the families to force them to sell the land so his private estate will be even more private. The legal action, known as “quiet title and partition,” is not uncommon in Hawaii, but its use over the years has reduced Native Hawaiian landownership through forced sales of the kind Zuckerberg is seeking.
The rich geek filed lawsuits against several hundred individuals, living and dead, via a number of shell companies he controls. Such cases can be complicated. It is often difficult to determine which Native Hawaiian families or individuals have a right to these land parcels because ownership is largely undocumented.
If Zuckerberg does end up running for office, you’ll probably hear all about it in one of his opponent’s attack ads.
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