Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg horrified staffers with Joe Rogan chat, transformation into MAGA Mark: report

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg’s public embrace of President Trump and his apparent transformation into “MAGA Mark” has horrified staffers and executives at the social media giant, according to a report.Zuckerberg triggered a wave of internal backlash at the Facebook and Instagram parent company following a controversial appearance on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast in January — in which the burgeoning MMA competitor said Corporate America had been “culturally neutered” and workplaces needed more “masculine energy,” according to the Financial Times.Just days after the controversial comments, a handful of executives worked up the courage to speak out at a leadership meeting at the company’s Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, the FT reported.“He basically said: ‘If you don’t like it, tough sh-t’,” one person with knowledge of the conversation told FT.Zuckerberg, who as of Friday had the world’s second highest net worth with a fortune valued by Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $245 billion, had also praised mixed-martial arts as a means of male bonding and asserted that aggression in men can be a force for good.“There’s this crazy thing about wrestling,” he told Rogan, a former MMA commentator.“It’s like, if you get into a fight with someone at work, you’re probably going to get fired.But if you train in MMA, you can roll hard with someone and you’re both better friends afterward.”“In a lot of the corporate world, I think there’s this bias where you think that aggression or intensity is inherently bad,” Zuckerberg went on.

“But it’s not.I actually think it’s useful.

You want to be able to channel that energy.”Zuckerberg’s transformation from Silicon Valley liberal to a Trump-friendly public figure has become a defining narrative of his leadership.Once viewed as a quiet, hoodie-wearing technocrat, he began to appear shirtless in MMA training videos, sported gold chains, flaunted expensive watches and made ...