US President Donald Trump on Monday boasted that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had told him at a dinner that he is number one on the global social media platform.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Trump made this known, without specifying when the dinner happened, in a live interview with a radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh.
“I had dinner with Mark Zuckerberg the other day and he said ‘I’d like to congratulate you… you are number one on Facebook,'” Trump said.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Facebook has said the last time Zuckerberg had dinner with the President was in October 2019.
Trump noted the importance of social media to his messaging, which depends on bypassing much of the professional news media, which he accuses of bias against him.
Trump, who has nearly 70 million followers on Twitter, told Limbaugh that without the platform, “I think we’d be lost. We wouldn’t be able to get the truth out”.
US social media platforms have come under criticism for enabling misinformation and fake news in the build-up to the 2020 presidential election.
Trump is number one on Facebook in terms of political ad spending, leading to accusations that the company is unduly influenced by the Republican.
At the October dinner at the White House, Trump and Zuckerberg were reportedly joined by Facebook board member Peter Thiel.