“Self-righteousness isn’t very proactive: We can talk about taxes, we can talk about jobs and even immigration, but that doesn’t really put food on the table and save lives. I think I’ll take Mark Zuckerberg seriously when he gives up all of his private security, moves out of his posh neighborhood, and come live in a modest neighborhood near a border town.”
— Katrina Pierson, a spokeswoman for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, Wednesday on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” in reaction to Zuckerberg’s comments Tuesday at Facebook’s F8 developer conference. The Facebook CEO didn’t mention Trump by name during his keynote, but he alluded to the Republican front-runner’s controversial positions, especially by saying: “Instead of building walls, we can help people build bridges.”
Trump’s immigration plan includes building a wall between the United States and Mexico, as well as mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Trump vs. Zuckerberg isn’t new. Last year, Trump criticized former presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio’s work on immigration reform, calling him Zuckerberg’s “personal senator.” The reason: Zuckerberg’s FWD.us immigration lobbying group supported Rubio’s work. And FWD.us has spoken out strongly against Trump’s positions on immigration. The group’s president, Todd Schulte, last year called them “backward policies that would rip apart American families and collapse our economy.” And just last month, Zuckerberg seemed to be referring to Trump and other GOP presidential candidates when he penned a Facebook post lamenting “growing voices for building walls and distancing people labeled as ‘other.’ “
During Trump’s spokeswoman’s appearance on TV today, she was also asked whether the candidate has a problem with Silicon Valley. For example, Trump has said more than once that “we’re going to get Apple to build their damn computers in this country instead of other countries” and called for a boycott of the Cupertino company during its battle with the FBI over the San Bernardino killer’s iPhone.
Pierson’s response: “The CEOs in Silicon Valley should focus on innovation and jobs and their businesses and let the politicians make their policies.”
As for Pierson’s dig at billionaire Zuckerberg’s wealth and privilege, she was asked whether the same could be said of Trump.
“But Donald Trump isn’t the one that’s saying we shouldn’t build a wall and we shouldn’t protect everyone else. That’s the hypocrisy I’m talking about here,” she said. She went on to say that a wall would help stop “criminals” and “drug cartels” and protect Americans who can’t afford to have private security guards.
By the way, Zuckerberg wasn’t the only high-profile person to take a jab at Trump on Tuesday. Aaron Levie, the quotable CEO of Redwood City-based Box, reportedly opened a conference in London by apologizing for Trump on behalf of America. And renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, on stage during Yuri Milner’s announcement of a new space project, was asked what he thought intelligent alien life might be like: “Judging from the election campaign, definitely not like us,” he reportedly said.
Photo: Donald Trump, U.S. presidential candidate. (AP/Seth Wenig)
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