Meta is currently defending itself in an antitrust trial brought by the Federal Trade Commission over allegations that the tech giant violated competition laws when it bought Instagram and WhatsApp. But the more we learn about the case, it seems clear that CEO Mark Zuckerberg thought President Donald Trump would save him from this indignity.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg once considered the possibility of splitting off Instagram from the company, years before the FTC launched its antitrust case against Meta. In a 2018 internal email revealed in court,

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg once considered separating Instagram from its parent company due to worries about antitrust litigation, according to an email shown Tuesday on the second say of an antitrust trial alleging Meta illegally monopolized the social media market.