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The Meta chief, who was at the White House on Wednesday, has discussed the case with the president and his aides. A trial is set to start in less than two weeks.
April 2, 2025, 5:22 p.m. ET
Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, has lobbied President Trump and his aides to resolve a federal antitrust lawsuit against his company that is set to go to trial on April 14, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
Mr. Zuckerberg has made several trips to the White House and Mar-a-Lago to discuss the matter, along with other issues, said two of the people, who were not authorized to reveal private conversations. Most recently, he visited the White House on Wednesday morning.
The Federal Trade Commission sued Meta in 2020, during Mr. Trump’s first term, accusing the company of stifling competition by buying young start-ups such as Instagram and WhatsApp and preventing them from becoming fully fledged businesses. Meta could resolve the lawsuit with a settlement. It is unclear whether Mr. Zuckerberg’s efforts have led the Trump administration to consider settling.
Andy Stone, a spokesman for Meta, which also owns Facebook, said the company “regularly meets with policymakers to discuss issues impacting competitiveness, national security and economic growth.”
The White House did not immediately have a comment, and the F.T.C. declined to comment. Details of the meetings were reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.
In its lawsuit, the F.T.C. claimed that Meta had violated antitrust law by acquiring young rivals and depriving consumers of alternative social media platforms. The F.T.C. argued that Meta’s 2012 purchase of the photo-sharing site Instagram for $1 billion and its 2014 deal for the messaging app WhatsApp for $19 billion should not have been approved.
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