GOT YOUR EYE ON THE BIG JOB, MARK?
Recent actions by the Facebook founder suggest Mark Zuckerberg has designs on the American presidency
HE’LL never make it, everyone said about the current character occupying the most important chair in the world. He’s a reality show star, for heaven’s sake. What does he know about running a country? But, as Donald Trump has proved, anything is possible. So is it really that far-fetched to imagine a young tech upstart taking control of the White House in 2020?
No matter how vehemently he denies it, Mark Zuckerberg (33) can’t seem to quash speculation he’s going to run for the US presidency in three years’ time. And the Facebook boss added more fuel to the rumour fire when he embarked on what looked suspiciously like a campaign tour.
The tech whizz announced in January he’d be going all-out to fulfil what he calls his personal challenge. “In recent years I’ve run 365 miles [587km], built a simple AI [artificial intelligence] for my home, read 25 books and learnt Mandarin,” he shared on Facebook (where else?).
“My personal challenge for 2017 is to have visited and met people in every state in the US by the end of the year. I’ve spent significant time in many states already, so I’ll need to travel to about 30 states this year to complete this challenge.”
While Zuck insisted the tour was solely to help him and wife Priscilla Chan (32) “lead the work at Facebook and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) so we can make the most positive impact”, he’s done a poor job at convincing the public and the media this is anything less than a campaign roadshow.
For starters, as tech news site Wired points out, he enlisted the services of a former White House photographer “whose images depict him, Obama-like, as a man of the people”.
He’s also hired a few campaign-trail alumni: Jessica Santillo, a former assistant press secretary for former US president Barack Obama, and Amy Dudley, a press secretary for former US vice-president Joe Biden. To top off his dream team he’s called on Joel Benenson – previously an adviser to Obama and the chief strategist for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign – as a consultant for the CZI.
But the most telling of all: previously sealed court documents recently revealed the Harvard dropout had tried to restructure Facebook’s stock so he’d still have voting rights within the company if he served in government.
Still, as Vanity Fair special correspondent Nick Bilton points out, Zuck is one of the few people for whom becoming president might actually be a step down.
“As the chief of Facebook he’s already the true leader of the free world,” Bilton writes. “Zuckerberg commands a company that touches a quarter of Earth’s population, some 1,8 billion monthly active users. There’s no one alive who can affect more people with the touch of a button.”
Whether he wants Trump’s job or not, the Silicon Valley savant and his megacorp have explicitly denied he’s eyeing the USA’s highest office – several times.
“Mark has been clear on why he’s doing these visits, starting from his post in January on his 2017 challenge,” a Facebook spokesperson told Wired. “As a philanthropic organisation focused on a number of substantive issues, including science, education, housing and criminal justice reform, any research efforts we undertake are to support that work.”
And when asked outright whether he was planning on running for office, Zuckerberg gave a point-blank answer: “No. I’m focused on building our community at Facebook and working on the CZI.”
Guess time will tell. In the meantime, though, here’s why a 2020 presidency
isn’t out of this young man’s reach. THE MONEY BEHIND THE MAN There’d be no need to lobby for funding for a Zuckerberg campaign. The Facebook CEO is worth an astonishing $70,5 billion (R916 billion), making him the fifth richest-person in the world in 2017, according to business magazine Forbes.
The publication also ranked Zuck at No 10 in its 2016 list of the world’s most powerful people – behind the likes of Russian president Vladimir Putin, Trump, German chancellor Angela Merkel and Pope Francis.
Finances could prove tricky down the line, though, considering Mark and Priscilla have already pledged a wodge of their fortune. In 2012 they announced they planned to give away most of it over the course of their lives as part of The Giving Pledge – a commitment by the world’s wealthiest to dedicate most of their wealth to “giving back”.
In December 2015 the parents of Maxima (now 20 months) declared they planned to hand over a whopping 99% of their Facebook shares to the CZI. THE CZI The charitable organisation was founded in honour of Max’s birth. Through the organisation the couple – who announced earlier this year they’re expecting their second daughter – will give most of their shares in Mark’s tech giant, worth $45 billion in 2015 (then R697 billion), to various causes. Since then, the CZI has provided funding for Andela, a start-up focused on training developers in Africa, and the couple’s science programme, Chan Zuckerberg Science. The latter has an ambitious mandate – to help cure, manage or prevent all disease by the year 2100.
THE ‘REAL’ MARK While Zuck was depicted in box-office hit The Social Network as a bit of a ruthless antisocial oddball, Mark seems to have gone to great lengths to tidy up the public’s perception of him.
Of course, the billions he’s invested in charity in recent years have certainly helped to polish his PR, but it’s possible that the personal stuff he’s shared with his more than 94,5 million Facebook followers is helping far more than any kind of strategic media campaign.
In July he shared a hilarious snap of himself stretching after a workout on the floor with adorable tot Max and his dreadlocked Hungarian sheepdog, Beast.
“The joys of fatherhood,” he captioned the snap. “Stretching after a long swim and bike. Max tries to stretch like Dad and kicks me in the face. Beast gets jealous and sits on my head.”
The candid photo garnered an incredible 465 000 reactions – most of them “likes”, “loves” and “hahas”.
“That dog is everything! Best pic ever! Anyone else notice Mark is wearing something other than a grey T-shirt and jeans?” one commenter quipped. Mark replied with his own joke: “It’s a weekend. I have different coloured shirts for the weekend” – complete with a smiley emoji.
On his not-a-campaign trail Mark has gone to great pains to include personal details about his meet-and-greets, sharing heartrending and inspiring stories from those he met at his various stops – such as the recovering heroin addicts he sat down with in Ohio and the kids he met at a youth detention centre in Indiana.
“I think there’s something to this idea that your relationships shape your path more than we realise,” he posted on Facebook in May.
“I also think this is an area where Facebook can make a difference. Some of you have asked if this challenge means I’m running for public office. I’m not. I’m doing it to get a broader perspective to make sure we’re best serving our community of almost two billion people at Facebook and doing the best work to promote equal opportunity at the CZI.”