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Mark Zuckerberg still isn’t running for president — he’d rather help government solve tech problems

It’s no secret that Zuckerberg has an interest in politics.

Mark Zuckerberg sits at a restaurant counter with strangers
Mark Zuckerberg sits at a restaurant counter with strangers
Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg maintains that he never wanted to be president — but he does have some lower-profile political ambitions.

Bloomberg wrote a story about Zuckerberg and his past nine months running Facebook amid numerous crises, and tried to explain his whistle-stop tour across America.

It’s this tour that led many to speculate that Zuckerberg might be positioning himself for a presidential run. Zuckerberg has denied this before, but one of the interesting nuggets in that story is that Zuckerberg did open up ever so slightly about his political ambitions.

Zuckerberg told Bloomberg that he has considered the idea of a “temporary role in government related to technology or science”; the reporters added a “for instance” in which Zuckerberg could help the country improve its technology infrastructure.

That sounds like some kind of advisory role, though Bloomberg didn’t mention a specific job, and didn’t imply that a formal role was ever offered. It’s possible that Zuckerberg could have been referring to a job in a Hillary Clinton administration. We’ve asked the company for more info, and we’ll update if we hear back.

It’s no secret that Zuckerberg has an interest in politics. When Facebook made plans last year to split its stock so that Zuckerberg could spend his billions on philanthropy without losing control of the company, there was language in the Securities and Exchange Commission filing that paved the way for him to take a government position without losing his Facebook control.

But while Zuckerberg continues to dismiss the idea that he wants to hold some kind of major political office, including president, that hasn’t stopped outsiders from speculating that he might. The crew over at Five Thirty Eight even picked Zuckerberg 23rd overall in their fantasy-football-style draft of Democratic presidential candidates.


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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