The Ship That Leaks From the Top Is Back

From a multi-byline profile of Stephen Miller in The New York Times last week:

Mr. Miller told Mr. Zuckerberg that he had an opportunity to help reform America, but it would be on President-elect Donald J. Trump’s terms. He made clear that Mr. Trump would crack down on immigration and go to war against the diversity, equity and inclusion, or D.E.I., culture that had been embraced by Meta and much of corporate America in recent years.

Mr. Zuckerberg was amenable. He signaled to Mr. Miller and his colleagues, including other senior Trump advisers, that he would do nothing to obstruct the Trump agenda, according to three people with knowledge of the meeting, who asked for anonymity to discuss a private conversation. Mr. Zuckerberg said he would instead focus solely on building tech products.

Mr. Zuckerberg blamed his former chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, for an inclusivity initiative at Facebook that encouraged employees’ self-expression in the workplace, according to one of the people with knowledge of the meeting. He said new guidelines and a series of layoffs amounted to a reset and that more changes were coming.

This account of the meeting clearly leaked from Trump’s side, not Meta’s side. The tone of it is that Miller told Zuckerberg to jump, and that Zuck obsequiously and gladly responded “How high?”

Zuckerberg scrambled for cover, posting a “Sheryl did amazing work at Meta and will forever be a legend in the industry [...]” tweet to Threads, followed by a coordinated “Thank you, @zuck. I will always be grateful for the many years we spent building a great business together [...]” reply from Sandberg. (Sandberg, who left Meta in 2022, only posted once to Threads in all of 2024. There’s a good chance this will be her only post in 2025.)

Zuckerberg, politically, seems in way over his head. The first Trump administration was infamous for its leaks. They barely hid it. The whole Trump brand is about brazenness. For decades, Trump was known to call reporters in New York under the guise of “John Miller” or “John Barron”, who were ostensibly public relations spokesmen representing Trump. But it was just him — and he didn’t even disguise his voice. He just did it.

So of course Stephen Miller (or Miller’s equivalent of John Barron) leaked the confidential nature of his discussion with Zuckerberg to The New York Times, because it made Miller look dominating and Zuckerberg look dominated. Even though it’s painfully obvious to anyone who sees this story that anything confidential they tell Stephen Miller might get leaked if it makes Miller look good. It’s like a perversion of your Miranda rights, a Miranda wrongs if you will: Anything you say to anyone in the Trump administration can and will be used against you in leaks to the media.

You don’t see stories like this about Cook or Nadella or Bezos, because I think those guys have the good sense to keep their mouths shut and just nod their heads. (Not Musk, though. When Trump and Musk eventually divorce in a spectacular flame-out, we’ll be deluged with stories about what Musk said in supposed confidence.)

★ Wednesday, 22 January 2025