Zuckerberg says he is not running for office

by Rebecca Savransky - 05/22/17 10:45 AM ET

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is seeking to throw water on speculation of a presidential bid, saying he is not running for public office.

In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg said he made it his personal challenge this year to visit every state he hasn’t spent time in previously to “learn about people’s hopes and challenges, and how they’re thinking about their work and communities.”

“Some of you have asked if this challenge means I’m running for public office. I’m not,” he wrote in the post.

{mosads}”I’m doing it to get a broader perspective to make sure we’re best serving our community of almost 2 billion people at Facebook and doing the best work to promote equal opportunity at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.”

Zuckerberg said through this mission so far, he has learned the importance of relationships in peoples’ lives.

“My biggest takeaway so far is that our relationships shape us more than we think — how we consider opportunities, how we process information, and how we form habits,” he wrote.

“There is a lot of discussion about inequality, but one under-looked dimension of inequality is in the makeup of our social networks.”

Zuckeberg’s recent actions have stirred some speculation he may run for the White House.

A report earlier this month said the Facebook CEO has spoken with President Trump multiple times on the phone since Trump was elected.