Reports have recently been circling the web courtesy of media companies that Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg might be considering running for President of the United States. This was fueled by his plans to hold public office and his scheduled visit to all 50 states. However, Zuckerberg finally laid these rumors to rest by saying that he has no current plans to run for POTUS. Then again, he didn’t deny plans to do so in the future.
Responding to a question from Buzzfeed, the tech billionaire said that he wasn’t running for president. He stressed that his current priorities revolve around Facebook and the charity organization that he has with his wife, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
“No, I’m focused on building our community at Facebook and working on the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative,” Zuckerberg’s response reads.
Considering that the organization recently acquired the artificial intelligence startup, Meta and the massive changes underway at Facebook, it would certainly appear that Zuckerberg is too busy at the moment to even consider the grueling task of running for president. As TechCrunch notes, however, he didn’t specifically say that he was not ever going to run for the highest office in the land.
There are other public office positions that the tech figure could fill other than president such as the governorship of California. There is also the recurring habit of politicians, both old and aspiring ones, to deny speculations related to their run for the presidency. A notable example was when Hillary Clinton told CNN back in 2004 that she hoped to support John Kerry or someone else during their campaign before trying to take the seat herself during the 2008 cycle.
In any case, the media now has an answer from the Facebook founder with regards to rumors of his run for POTUS and it would seem that the current details support his reasons for rejecting the notion. Time will tell if Zuckerberg will hold the same stance in 2020.