Inside Meta, staff are whispering a new nickname for their once-nerdy boss: “MAGA Mark.”
According to a Financial Times investigation, Mark Zuckerberg has undergone a radical shift in style—cosmetic, cultural, and political—that has left some longtime colleagues “grieving”, and feeling “horror” and “betrayal.”
The paper spoke to more than 40 mostly-anonymous insiders, many of whom described a workplace in emotional freefall, as they watch the 41-year-old morph from hoodie-wearing tech nerd to an MMA-loving mega-billionaire, and is pals with “the MAGA movement and the ‘manosphere’—a constellation of anti-woke, alpha male influencers” that include UFC boss Dana White and Joe Rogan.
In one meeting, when staff questioned the new direction following a Rogan podcast appearance in which he called for more “masculine energy” in the workplace—which led him to be dubbed “emperor of the Broman Empire” by one comic—Zuckerberg reportedly snapped: “If you don’t like it, tough s–t.”
Appearance-wise, The FT reports Zuckerberg has swapped his famous “anonymous grey T-shirts” for more blingy items, such as “shearling coats, gold chains and a $900,000 Greubel Forsey watch. The military-grade haircut is gone, in favor of a luxuriant ginger mullet.”
Zuckerberg’s tone has taken a hard turn too, according to the report, which points out that just weeks before Trump was due to be sworn in for a second term, the tech entrepreneur announced Meta would be weakening content moderation, scrapping professional fact-checking, and slashing diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
The FT’s report reveals that there were even “discussions about Zuckerberg taking a role as an adviser to the Trump administration, potentially on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. At events, Trump ‘loves introducing Mark around’, said one person who has observed them together.”
As one former senior employee is said to have put it: “It’s gone from ‘lean in’ to ‘f–k off.’”
Despite the criticism, other insiders told The FT that Zuckerberg remains an intensely hands-on CEO, obsessively involved in product development and AI, an area in which he is investing heavily.
“You see his conviction,” said Meta CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth. “And investors will thank him later.”
Some, like Bosworth, believe we are finally seeing the real Zuckerberg—the true face of a man who once told a friend that Facebook users “who trusted him with their data were ‘dumb f–ks’,” reports the FT. “Now… we are finally meeting the ‘authentic’ Zuckerberg,” Bosworth told the paper.
Another insider is quoted as saying: “Mark was trying to keep his real feelings tight inside… But the whole time this was all one inch underneath… Then he said, ‘F–k it. I might as well be the person I really am.’”
Saying that, not everyone is convinced. Some warn that Zuckerberg’s political realignment—widely seen as an attempt to secure regulatory goodwill from the Trump administration—could backfire.
“Until we actually see changes that are lasting and real and permanent, we’re not going to believe it,” one senior Senate aide told The FT.
Other Trump acolytes are also skeptical, according to D.C. lobbyists the paper spoke to. Steve Bannon, the original MAGA man, certainly isn’t sold, insisting Zuckerberg “can’t be trusted.”
Even some of Zuckerberg’s advisers are reportedly uneasy about his full-throttle alignment with Trump, warning it could backfire if political winds shift. “If there is a new administration, what is he going to do?” one former senior staffer is reported to have said.
“Pretend that the past six, seven months didn’t happen? Everybody knows, inside and outside the company, that he kissed the ring.”
Zuckerberg declined to be interviewed for The FT story, reportedly preferring to focus on “podcast appearances rather than mainstream media.”
Meta declined a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
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