- Mark Zuckerberg once told an employee he thought Andrew Jackson was the greatest US president.
- Sarah Wynn-Williams worked at Meta from 2011 to 2017 and got to travel with Zuckerberg.
- Zuckerberg expressed his admiration for Jackson during a work trip to Japan, Wynn-Williams wrote.
For Meta’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, one American president stands head and shoulders above the rest.
While traveling with his staff in Tokyo in 2014, Zuckerberg said that the late President Andrew Jackson was the greatest president America ever had, Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former Facebook executive, wrote in her recently published memoir “Careless People.”
In her book, Wynn-Williams said Zuckerberg admired Jackson for his ruthlessness and for being a populist and individualist who “got stuff done.”
“What about Lincoln or Roosevelt?” Wynn-Williams said she asked Zuckerberg then. In her book, Wynn-Williams did not specify if she was referring to President Theodore Roosevelt or President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
“Wouldn’t you say they got stuff done? Couldn’t one of them be the greatest?” Wynn-Williams added, per her account.
“No,” Zuckerberg said in response. “It’s Jackson. It’s not even close.”
Wynn-Williams’ book, released Tuesday, details her time working for Zuckerberg. The former New Zealand diplomat and international lawyer joined the company in 2011. She worked at the company — which was then called Facebook — for about six years and became its director of global public policy.
A spokesperson for Meta told Business Insider that Wynn-Williams’ employment was terminated in 2017 due to “poor performance and toxic behavior.”
“This book is a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives,” the spokesperson said of Wynn-Williams.
Jackson was the seventh president of the United States and won the presidency in 1828, securing both the electoral and popular votes.
The late president was a divisive figure. Jackson was a slave owner and enacted anti-Native policies, including the forced removal of the Cherokee from their lands.
However, he is also revered as a military leader. Jackson was recognized as a war hero for defeating the British during the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.
Jackson led the effort to decentralize America’s banking system. In 1832, Jackson used his veto powers to dissolve the Second Bank of the United States, dismantling it in favor of smaller banks.
Interestingly, Zuckerberg isn’t the only fan of Jackson.
President Donald Trump placed a portrait of Jackson in the Oval Office during his first term. And in 2016, Trump criticized the Treasury Department’s decision to replace Jackson’s portrait on the $20 bill with Harriet Tubman, an abolitionist.
“Well, Andrew Jackson had a great history, and I think it’s very rough when you take someone off the bill,” Trump said during a town hall event on NBC’s “Today” show in April 2016.
“Andrew Jackson had a history of tremendous success with the country,” Trump added.
Representatives for Zuckerberg at Meta did not respond to a request for comment from BI.
