A forthcoming book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, obtained by WIRED, describes Zuckerberg, Bezos, Pichai and Cook courting Trump after the 2024 election. The lasting story is a space-launch fight that Musk won.
Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos spent the weeks after the 2024 election trying to get on Donald Trump's good side, and Trump mocked the effort behind their backs, according to a forthcoming book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. WIRED reported the details after obtaining a copy of the book, titled "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump," ahead of its June 23 release.
The anecdotes are the kind that travel fast. The authors say Zuckerberg texted Trump a photo of a letter written by one of his grade-school children that looked forward to a "golden age of America," echoing a Trump campaign line. When Zuckerberg visited Mar-a-Lago around Thanksgiving 2024, the book says, Trump played the national anthem as performed by a group of jailed January 6 rioters known as the J6 Prison Choir. Trump later showed the ingratiating messages to guests, and in a conversation with Elon Musk dismissed both men as having once "hated me," adding that they should look at where they were now. Musk, according to the authors, replied that it was "first-class groveling."
Bezos gets similar treatment. At a December 2024 dinner, the book says, he agreed with Trump's complaints about The Washington Post, which he owns, described it as one of his worst investments, and called the people there "terrible." That exchange was earlier reported by the New York Post. WIRED notes the White House spokesperson did not directly respond to the reporting, and that Bezos's space company Blue Origin, Meta, and Musk did not respond to requests for comment. A person familiar with the Bezos episodes told WIRED that Bezos has worked with every president since Bill Clinton and intended to work with whoever held the office next.
National security and space
According to the authors, the most consequential moment came in July 2025, when Bezos used an Oval Office meeting to argue that it was a national security risk to let a single contractor, Musk's SpaceX, dominate America's space infrastructure, including Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral. The book says Bezos suggested Trump could direct Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg to push government space buyers toward "contractor diversity," which would open the door for Blue Origin to compete.
That is a live national security question, not a personality dispute. Concentration of launch capability in one private firm gives that firm leverage over military payloads, intelligence satellites, and crewed missions, and it raises resilience concerns if a single provider faces a failure, a strike, or a political falling-out. The book's account shows a sitting president weighing that question less on the merits and more on personal alignment.
According to Haberman and Swan, Trump told Bezos he would consider the request. It never happened. In the months that followed, the authors write, Trump reconciled with Musk, who had resumed donating to Republicans, and instead expanded access for SpaceX's Starship operation. The episode tracks a pattern across the sector: Zuckerberg, Bezos, Pichai and Cook can buy meetings and goodwill, but Musk has converted proximity into concrete federal advantage.
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