Donald Trump has threatened to imprison Mark Zuckerberg if the Facebook founder does “anything illegal” to influence the upcoming presidential election.
The former president made the claim in a new book, titled Save America, which is a collection of pictures and anecdotes from his presidential campaigns and term in office.
Next to a photograph of him meeting Mr Zuckerberg in the White House, Mr Trump wrote: “He would bring his very nice wife to dinners, be as nice as anyone could be, while always plotting to install shameful Lock Boxes in a true PLOT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.”
It was a reference to the more than $400m (£303m) Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan Zuckerberg, donated to election offices in 2020.
The gifts mostly went to Democratic-leaning counties in some states – partly because Republican politicians rejected the donations as Mr Trump warned against funding election offices so they could instead encourage postal votes during the coronavirus pandemic.
Image: Mark Zuckerberg. Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump and his supporters have repeatedly blamed the donations for contributing to his loss in 2020.
“We are watching him closely,” Mr Trump wrote in his new book, “and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison – as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election.”
Image: A page from Donald Trump’s book, Save America, shows an Oval Office meeting with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Pic: Winning Team Publishing/NBC News
Mr Trump’s third coffee table book also includes pictures of him with world leaders such as North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Germany’s former chancellor, Angela Merkel.
Advertisement
It also features pictures of the crowds he likes to boast about that gathered in Washington DC to hear his speech ahead of the January 6 attack on the Capitol in 2021.
Meta, Zuckerberg’s renamed company, has yet to comment on the book.
The family of a Mexican man shot last week at an immigration and customs facility in Dallas say he’s died, becoming the second detainee to be killed in the attack.
Police previously said one person was killed and two critically injured after a gunman opened fire at an ICE field office in the Texas city last Wednesday.
A bullet engraved with the phrase “ANTI-ICE” was found at the scene, the FBI said, with the attack being investigated as an act of “targeted violence”.
Miguel Angel Garcia-Hernandez, 32, died from his injuries after being removed from life support, his family confirmed in a statement shared by the League of United Latin American Citizens.
He is understood to have been one of the two detainees left in a critical condition following the attack on 24 September.
Officials previously said the first man killed was Norlan Guzman-Fuentes.
Image: One of the bullet casings was engraved with ‘ANTI ICE’. Pic: Kash Patel/X
A handwritten note was also recovered after the shooting detailing the suspect’s desire to inflict “real terror” on US immigration agents, the head of the FBI said.
More on Dallas
Related Topics:
Joshua Jahn, 29, from Fairview in Texas, was found dead at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, said acting US attorney Nancy Larson.
FBI director Kash Patel said the agency had seized devices and had processed “writings” obtained at the scene and in the suspect’s home since the attack.
A handwritten recovered note read: “Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think: ‘Is there a sniper with AP rounds on that roof?'”
Mr Patel said on X: “While the investigation is ongoing, an initial review of the evidence shows an ideological motive behind this attack.”
America’s military top brass have left their posts to attend a meeting with the US president and defence secretary about the “warrior ethos”.
Hundreds of officers travelled from around the world to attend the occasion at a marine corps base in Quantico, Virginia. It is a rare gathering of the US military’s top tier, all in the one place.
There has been much speculation about the substance of Tuesday’s meeting, given its scale and short notice with minimal explanation.
Donald Trump told NBC News, Sky’s US partner network, it is “really just a very nice meeting talking about how well we’re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good, positive things”.
“We have some great people coming in, and it’s just an esprit de corps,” he said.
“You know the expression ‘esprit de corps?’ That’s all it’s about. We’re talking about what we’re doing, what they’re doing, and how we’re doing.”
Image: Trump and Hegseth watch a US anniversary military parade in Washington in June. Pic: Reuters
‘Department of War’
The officers were summoned by defence secretary Pete Hegseth, who has adopted the slogan “Make America Lethal Again”. Ahead of the meeting, he has said his intention is to outline a new vision for the military and restore what he calls the “warrior ethos”.
Hegseth is the former TV presenter picked by Trump to run the defence department, now rebranded the Department of War. He has a military background, serving as an infantry officer in the National Guard.
His audience in Quantico will number the country’s most senior generals and admirals. Over 800 of the rank of brigadier-general and above will be there, along with their navy equivalents.
Since he started in post, Hegseth has fired a number of senior officers. In May, he ordered a 20% cut in the number of four-star generals and admirals, and he targeted flag and general officers with a 10% reduction.
A controversial figure, Hegseth has accused some members of senior rank of being responsible for a woke culture and, in the past, has questioned the role of women in the military.
YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5m (£18.1m) to settle a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump after it banned his account following the January 6 Capitol riot.
More than four years on from the violent scenes that left a police officer dead, court documents filed on Monday revealed that $22m (£16.3m) from the settlement will go towards a trust for Washington DC’s National Mall and the construction of a White House ballroom.
The remainder will be paid to other parties involved in the case, including the American Conservative Union.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:23
Capitol rioter: ‘I was convicted in a show trial’
Google declined to comment on the reasons for the settlement, which does not constitute an admission of liability.
Mr Trump’s YouTube account has been back online since 2023.
Google’s parent company Alphabet is the third tech firm to settle with Mr Trump over what he perceived as an illegitimate muzzling of him online following the riot.
He was also suspended from Meta’s platforms and Twitter, moves which saw him gravitate towards his own social media platform – Truth Social.
The president and his supporters have falsely maintained that the 2020 election was stolen.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:48
Trump: ‘Most Capitol rioters were innocent’
Meta – which owns Facebook and Instagram – agreed to pay $25m (£18.6m) to settle Mr Trump’s lawsuit, and X (what Twitter became after being bought by Elon Musk in 2022) settled for $10m (£7.4m).
Alphabet boss Sundar Pichai, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Mr Musk all attended Mr Trump’s inauguration this year, with the latter having been a key contributor to his 2024 election campaign.
He led the Trump administration’s cost-cutting DOGE unit during the early months of 2025.