Only this week did we announce our watch over Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s presidential ambitions. And also only Tuesday did BuzzFeed break the story that Zuckerberg will not be running for president … in 2020. Meaning: hope remains! After explaining why he’s not currently interested in the position (prioritizing Facebook and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, etc.), the report says he also “did not immediately respond to follow-up questions about whether he’d explicitly ruled out a run.”
2020? Out. Future political and presidential aspirations? Still on the table. In fact, the lack of response to follow-up questions only deepens our interest in this story. This would hardly be the first time Zuckerberg has changed course after making a decision. The former atheist now “believes religion is very important,” and calls his religion-less period of time a moment when he was “questioning things.” That is, truly, one of the most significant backpedals a person can make. He appeared to waffle on switching to Android after complaining about his iPhone’s reception and battery issues. (He later deleted the post.) And Zuckerberg has had a significant shift on his stance on anonymity: Originally, he’d been all for using real and verifiable names in the digital spaces he’d created, and opposed to anonymity online. But over time he’s swayed a bit, and even called the “pressure of real identity” a “burden.”
One thing that does not and has not changed: his shirt. (Well, actually, he used to wear other shirts.) We’ll consider Zuckerberg’s post-2020 political aspirations in play.
