Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, attending President Trump's inauguration. Yonhap News. 

The background behind President Donald Trump's recent threat to impose additional tariffs on countries that tax American companies digitally was a meeting with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Bloomberg News reported on the 28th (local time).

According to the report, Zuckerberg visited the White House last weekend and raised concerns about digital taxes with President Trump, after which Trump warned that he would impose significant tariffs on countries that implement digital taxes.

Sources said that Zuckerberg discussed the threat of digital service taxes, which are levied on the profits of tech companies in certain countries, during the meeting.

Digital taxes are taxes imposed by a country on the revenue that global companies earn within that country. Some countries, particularly in Europe, have introduced or are planning to introduce them.

In a post on his social media service Truth Social on the 25th, President Trump stated, "As President of the United States, I will stand up to countries that attack our great American tech companies," and claimed, "Digital taxes, digital service laws, and digital market regulations are all designed to harm or discriminate against American technology."

He further stated, "Unless these discriminatory measures are removed, I, as President of the United States, will impose substantial additional tariffs on exports from those countries to the United States and introduce restrictions on the export of technology and semiconductors that we strictly protect."

The fact that President Trump mentioned Meta during a White House cabinet meeting on the 26th adds weight to the possibility of an actual meeting with Zuckerberg.

At the time, President Trump displayed a graphic he received from Zuckerberg, stating that the AI data center Meta plans to build in Louisiana would cost $50 billion.

Since President Trump's victory in the US presidential election last November, Zuckerberg, who had a strained relationship with Trump, has focused on improving their relationship.

Zuckerberg has reorganized the company's content moderation and diversity policies to align with Trump's leanings, and has visited the White House and Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Trump's residence, multiple times. He also sponsored Trump's inauguration ceremony with $1 million.

Additionally, he has expanded his influence in Washington by purchasing two homes for tens of millions of dollars adjacent to the Naval Observatory in Washington, where Vice President J.D. Vance resides, and by bringing Trump loyalists into the company and its board.

Following the improvement in their relationship, they have repeatedly discussed various topics with President Trump, ranging from artificial intelligence (AI) to European Big Tech regulations, according to Bloomberg News.

During their meeting at the White House last week, they reportedly discussed the issue of excessive regulation by European regulatory authorities and Meta's plan for a massive data center construction in Louisiana.

Yonhap News