The White House is denying an anonymous report that Mark Zuckerberg waltzed into an Oval Office meeting unexpectedly.
According to liberal NBC News, the Facebook founder was asked to leave after he walked in unannounced.
The report, citing two anonymous officials, said there were concerns Zuckerberg didn't have a security clearance.
Americans are very familiar at this point with Trump's spontaneous, idiosyncratic approach to governing. A couple weeks ago, he discussed world politics with journalists while surveying construction on a new set of "beautiful" flagpoles on the White House lawn. When Trump made one of his semi-regular pilgrimages to UFC in June, he brought Secretary of State Marco Rubio to watch.
While some find Trump's loose, unfiltered style to be a refreshing change, especially after four years of the cloistered Biden presidency, some White House insiders complained to NBC about a lack of privacy.
One official described the winter meeting where Zuckerberg reportedly showed up as "bizarro world."
"A young aide also came in during the meeting, showed the president something on her laptop computer and left. Trump’s cellphone rang a couple of times," the report said.
The White House denied NBC's claim that Zuckerberg crashed the meeting, which was to discuss the next generation of fighter jets, the F-47.
While acknowledging that Zuckerberg made an appearance, an official said Trump had requested a separate meeting with the tech titan.
“He was not asked to leave,” the official said. “He popped in to say hello at the president’s request, and then left to wait for his meeting with POTUS to begin, which was scheduled to occur after the meeting with the pilots.”
The relationship between Trump and Zuckerberg has become much friendlier compared to Trump's first term, when Trump frequently complained about Facebook's left-wing bias.
Zuckerberg apologized last year for Facebook's role in censoring information on behalf of the Biden administration. Zuckerberg also praised Trump's courageous response to the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, and Zuckerberg was later front and center at Trump's historic second inauguration in January.
Another tech billionaire, Elon Musk, was a recurring presence in the Oval Office during the early months of Trump's second term, with Musk's casual office wear becoming a subject of criticism and parody. Musk resigned his position as a "special government employee" in May.
When Musk's alliance with Trump dramatically unraveled days later, Trump confirmed that he asked Musk to leave, saying the Tesla CEO was "wearing thin."
