Will Mark Zuckerberg be our next president?

So let’s just say Zuckerberg decides to run. If you’re Elizabeth Warren, Paul Ryan, or Kanye West (who also aspires to be president—God help us all) what’s your attack on Zuckerberg? Privacy. Over the years, one of Zuckerberg’s biggest blunders has been the lack of respect for people’s privacy on Facebook. In the early days of the social network, he pillaged, sneered, and ignored people’s concerns about their privacy. Sure, it worked out well for the company and created entirely new societal norms for what it meant to be open, but it’s something that is going to follow him wherever he goes. And, given Zuckerberg’s unsuccessful bid to get Facebook into China, you can be sure politicians would attempt to paint him as someone just trying to use public office to grow his business. (Though, that didn’t seem to hurt you-know-who.)

When I’ve asked people in Silicon Valley if a Zuckerberg bid is potentially real, the consensus seems to be: absolutely. “He’s been incredibly careful about cultivating a specific type of persona over the past few years,” one person said. And he’s managed to set himself apart from other tech titans. (For example, while Bezos, Musk, Cook, and others made a pilgrimage to Trump’s table last month, Zuckerberg sent his second in command, Sheryl Sandberg.) If you ask me, Zuckerberg’s biggest problem is that he’s not the most sociable. He sticks to himself and his company, doesn’t entertain people outside his very tight circle of friends and associates, and appears to be more socially awkward than Howard Hughes. But, he also clearly isn’t driven by money—he’s the sixth-richest person in the world and has vowed to donate most of his wealth. He wants something bigger. Something that gives him more impact and influence on the planet.

So what about that “He wants to be emperor” statement? I remember once hearing a story about how Zuckerberg used to motivate people when he was a young C.E.O. As a child, he was enamored with literature, and while most people just read books, Zuckerberg instead decided to memorize them. He did this with Homer’s Iliad, which tells the story of the battle between the ancient kingdoms of Troy and Sparta. As The Wall Street Journal reported in 2010, at a staff meeting, “Zuckerberg quoted from the movie Troy before hundreds of employees crammed into the steamy basement of a Sheraton hotel in Palo Alto. He recounted the scene where a messenger tells Achilles how scared he would be to confront the giant Thessalonian, whom Achilles was preparing to battle.” To this, Zuckerberg shouted to his underlings: “That’s why no one will remember your name!” He’s echoed that statement over the years, saying that when new hires ask why they should join Facebook, “Tell them: because people will remember your name.” Zuckerberg wants his name to be remembered, too. And maybe being C.E.O. of the biggest social network in the world isn’t a big enough remembrance.