During the Manhattan Project in the mid-1940s, Hanford was one of three main sites where thousands of workers developed and built the world's first atomic bombs.

The government wanted both secrecy and security and chose an isolated location, away from cities on the East Coast. It's about 150 miles southeast of Seattle.

The government wanted the site to be close to dams for electricity and near the river so it had a source of liquid to cool the reactors. The rural setting meant the operation would have to displace fewer people.

The government purchased the land in 1943 and gave about 2,000 locals, many of them farmers and Indigenous people, 30 days to leave, The New York Times reported.

One resident, Annette Heriford, later said the government paid far less than the land was worth, per the Atomic Heritage Foundation (AHF).

They understood their work was related to the war effort, but the site's role in building a nuclear weapon was top secret.

There were so many workers that Hanford and nearby Richland swelled with thousands of new residents. Most were white men, but Hanford also employed Black, Indigenous, and Latino workers, in addition to white women, according to the National Park Service.

Hundreds of new buildings went up to accommodate the growing population, including banks, grocery stores, and cafeterias.

Some of these places were integrated, while others were segregated. Restaurants in the area barred Black workers from entering, Cascade PBS reported.

The area stretched along the Columbia River, covering hundreds of acres.

It was the B Reactor that produced the first plutonium in the United States. The first supply of plutonium was delivered to the Army on February 2, 1945, just four months after the reactor began operating.

The physicians working at Hanford reportedly knew radiation could cause illness, and they used dosimetry devices to monitor workers' exposure. They would wear badges containing photographic film that would develop an image of the protective case when exposed to radiation.

Fat Man, the nuclear bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945, also contained Hanford's plutonium.

The bomb killed an estimated 50,000 people in Nagasaki, The BBC reported. Another 135,000 people died in Hiroshima, Japan, where the US dropped a uranium bomb a few days earlier.

On August 6, 1945, Spokane, Washington, residents awoke to the news that Hanford was one of the secret sites responsible for the atomic bombs.

"Tongues wagged, workmen talked, nearly every truck driver who passed that way had his pet theory," The Spokane Daily Chronicle reported at the time. "Many may have guessed the correct answer. But still the riddle of Hanford remained — and the secret was kept."

This time it was to supply the US with a nuclear arsenal during the Cold War. Six more reactors were built by 1955. Production continued into the late 1980s.

The reactors weren't all built at once but over a 20-year period from 1943 to 1963.

That's a little less than the weight of 10 African elephants. Fat Man contained less than 14 pounds of plutonium, according to the Atomic Heritage Foundation.

The site was responsible for a large part of the 60,000 nuclear weapons the US had made by 1987.

Some serious accidents and secret human experiments showed how deadly radiation sickness could be, according to the AHF. US officials suppressed information about how the bombs were causing severe illnesses and deaths in Japan, according to JSTOR.

In 1954, Life Magazine profiled Hanford employee Homer Moulthorp, who had created plastic suits to combat radiation sickness.

His friends referred to it as "Homer's Hideous Hallucination." Before that, the employees had to wear heavy clothing that had to be buried after being used once.

The researchers were trying to determine radiation's effects on people. In 2007, 40,000 tons of dead animals and manure were uncovered from trenches in Hanford, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported. Most of the waste was manure, contaminated with radioactive strontium-90.

Even producing a small batch of plutonium would result in a huge amount of contaminated waste.

In a story for the Spokesman-Review, farmer Tom Bailie described the town of Ringold, Washington, about 11 miles southeast of the Hanford Site, as having unusually high rates of cancer.

The story's reporter, Karen Dorn Steele, later found the government had conducted a test in 1949 to learn more about how the radioisotope Iodine 131 moved through the air, per NPS. Thousands of Hanford Downwinders, as they called themselves, filed lawsuits against the government. All the lawsuits have since been either dropped or settled.

The Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and the Washington State Department of Ecology signed the agreement.

"It was at the end of the Cold War that the site's mission shifted from production of plutonium and that material to environmental cleanup," Ryan Miller, a communications manager for the Washington State Department of Ecology, told Business Insider.

By then Hanford was no longer making plutonium. Reactors started shutting down in the mid-1960s; the last one closed in 1987. It was exclusively a massive environmental hazard that needed to be cleaned up.

There are a host of challenges when it comes to cleaning up Hanford, from contaminated buildings and groundwater to leaky storage tanks holding radioactive waste.

Officials don't even know where all the contaminated material is.

"One of the biggest challenges, at least back in the '80s when cleanup started, was documentation," Miller said. The agencies worked to figure out the scope of the problem, but they were hampered by poor record-keeping. "There's a kind of shroud of secrecy over the Hanford Site, especially during World War II," he added.

When Hanford first produced nuclear waste, workers buried contaminated clothes and tools in the desert, without recording the locations, The Daily Beast reported in 2013.

Across the reserve, there were nearly 1,700 waste sites.

During the production years, workers would dump barrels of waste and contaminated groundwater into unlined trenches, Miller said. The agencies have addressed over 1,350 sites so far, he added.

Liquid waste is usually contaminated water or sludge, which is described as having the same consistency as peanut butter.

The contaminated groundwater had a footprint larger than Boise, Idaho. Hanford set up pump-and-treat facilities to treat the water and then re-inject it back into the ground, Miller said. So far, the facilities have treated over 32 billion gallons of groundwater.

In 2017, the EPA said contaminated groundwater was flowing freely into the Columbia River. The river's hundreds of thousands of gallons of water help dilute the uranium, tritium, and other substances that seep in, according to Washington's Department of Ecology.

The first 149 tanks were built with a single layer of steel. In 1968, officials developed a new double-shelled model, storing waste in 28 of them.

Altogether, the tanks contain twice the radioactivity released by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Russia, The Atlantic reported. By 1989, 68 of the 149 tanks had leaked 900,000 contaminated gallons into the ground.

"This waste poses, arguably, the largest kind of cleanup effort being done at the Hanford site, and one of the biggest risks," Miller said.

In 2010, Robert Alvarez, a former Energy Department official, said the amount of plutonium buried at Hanford could fuel 1,800 bombs, as reported by The New York Times.

It was only after a million gallons of waste had leaked into the ground that the DOE said more information was necessary, The New York Times reported in 2010. A year earlier, a contractor fired an employee who voiced concerns about the issue "too vigorously."

"A lot of those tanks were built in the '40s, '50s, '60s," Miller said. "So all the tanks are well past their design life."

In 2013, new leaks were discovered in several underground tanks. While management already knew that one tank was leaking at a rate of up to 300 gallons of waste every year, the discovery that five more were also leaking was especially concerning, CBS News reported.

The treatment plant will turn the waste from the deteriorating tanks into glass, which can then be stored more safely for several thousand years. This process, known as vitrification, is expected to begin with some of the low-activity, less radioactive waste next year.

Once the vitrified waste is stored in steel containers, workers will dispose of the low-activity glass at a Hanford landfill, which has been engineered with barriers, Miller said.

There's currently no facility in the US capable of storing high-level waste long-term, so that too will stay at Hanford for the time being.

Strontium-90 is also called a "bone seeker" because it acts similarly to calcium — accumulating in bones — while increasing the risk of cancer.

Concerned about earthquakes, the DOE decided the capsules needed to be moved. In the next year or so, the agencies will start transferring them to dry storage, Miller said.

The nine reactors presented a challenge, Miller said, because they had big footprints. Workers removed hazardous materials and demolished supporting infrastructure and facilities.

In addition to the reactors, nearly 2,000 contaminated buildings covered the Hanford Site. The agencies have demolished almost half of them.

Crews demolished parts of the reactors, then encased the rest in giant steel structures. They will remain like this for at least 75 years, until radiation falls to a safe level and workers can dismantle the structures, though the method for full disposal isn't yet known.

One reactor still needs to be cocooned — scheduled to be completed by 2032 — while another will remain standing.

The B Reactor was the world's first full-scale plutonium production reactor. Instead of being cocooned, it was turned into a National Historic Landmark in 2008. Some areas are still radioactive but visitors don't have access to them, according to the tour's safety sheet.

As many as 15,000 people visit the National Historical Park at Hanford each year. Most visitors to the site don't need to wear dosimeters or other special equipment.

Instead of farmers and ranchers developing the land, it's been left untouched for over 75 years, and wildlife has boomed. In 2000, President Bill Clinton made the 195,000-acre area a National Monument.

There are herds of elk and mule deer. Chinook salmon breed in stretches of the river in autumn, and it's home to an abundance of birds, including burrowing owls, Swainson hawks, and sagebrush sparrows.

Not all animals are thriving, though. The agencies have found issues with radioactive wasp nests, fruit flies, and rabbits.

When radioactive rabbit droppings were found in the area, it was protocol to set traps to kill contaminated rabbits, The Seattle Times reported.

Recently, some populations, like the ground squirrels and burrowing owls, have been declining and specialists aren't sure why.

As for radiation on and in the river, health officials said fish tested for radiation posed no health risk.

Earlier this year, Hanford workers pumped out contaminated water nearby that threatened to leak into the river, according to the Tri-City Herald.

In 2000, wildfires threatened the complex, and Washington's Department of Health reported a rise in plutonium levels in the area, thought to be spread by dust and ash.

Some Hanford workers say they have lung-related illnesses, like COPD or cancer, that they attributed to the time at the site, OPB News reported in 2016.

When affected Russian thistle decayed and broke from its roots, the radioactive tumbleweeds could roll for up to 4 miles and spread a year's dose of radiation, The Washington Post reported.

Hanford radiation experts said if it had been a windy day, radioactive particles could've blown around and made the situation much worse.

The DOE's own experts had warned the tunnels might collapse for decades, KING 5 reported in 2017. The EPA said more tunnels would collapse as the equipment deteriorated.

In 2016, 61 employees were exposed to vapors from leaking tanks, two years after a report found a "causal link" between the vapors and lung and brain damage.

A 2021 Washington State Department of Commerce survey of over 1,000 current and former Hanford workers found that 57% had been exposed to hazardous materials.

The area is prone to wildfires and possible earthquakes.

The last big earthquake in the area was in 1936, but another sizable one could release radiation. That's what happened with the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011.

Miller said Hanford is on track to start the vitrification process in the summer of 2025. Workers have already started making test glass.

But not all the waste will undergo vitrification. Instead, some will go through a different process, grouting, which makes the waste more like cement than glass. It's less expensive and quicker, but the method hasn't been as thoroughly tested as vitrification, Cascade PBS reported.

While the agencies say the deadlines haven't changed, the agreement does update the Tri-Party Agreement.

Some stakeholders, like local tribes and environmental groups, said the agencies didn't include them in the meetings about the new plans, OPB News reported.

New estimates are closer to 2069 or later. In 2002, the Government Accountability Office estimated the price to clean up Hanford at between $300 billion and $640 billion. The office put the timeline at a vague "decades."

In March, President Joe Biden gave Hanford its highest cleanup budget yet, $3.05 billion. Things could change under the next administration.

During his first term, President Donald Trump proposed cutting Hanford's budget and floated the idea of reclassifying high-level waste as less dangerous to lower costs, per The Los Angeles Times.

Miller said less funding could ultimately make cleaning up Hanford longer and more expensive.

"Every year that Hanford cleanup is underfunded, that can actually push the ultimate lifespan of the project out further," he said. "It could actually balloon the cost by tens of billions of dollars if it's not funded appropriately now."

Tom Carpenter, executive director of the watchdog Hanford Challenge, told The Atlantic in 2018 that the majority of Hanford's waste was going nowhere. "Hanford is going to be a national sacrifice zone for hundreds of years," he said.

Sources used for this story include the Hanford Site, the Washington State Department of Ecology, the US Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Parks Service, the Atomic Heritage Foundation, the Government Accountability Office, and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

This story was originally published on September 23, 2019, and updated on December 17, 2024.

Montana's Glacier National Park sprawls over 1,500 miles, encompassing mountains, valleys, and glacial lakes. Even if you've never visited, you might recognize the park's Going-to-the-Sun Road, which was featured in the 1980 movie "The Shining."

Throughout the park, grizzly bears graze on huckleberries. Little rodent-like pikas, lynx, and Harlequin ducks are also adapted to the area's chilly weather.

The park once held 80 glaciers. In 2015, NPS estimated only 26 were left. Satellites have captured the remaining few as they continue to shrink.

Warming temperatures are driving the glaciers' disappearance, which will impact the plants and animals that live there.

For example, mountain goats rely on snow patches to stay cool during the summer. In the winter, the snow helps keep tiny mouse-like rodents, called pikas, insulated from the bitter cold.

Together the Denali National Park and Preserve are larger than New Hampshire, stretching nearly 9,500 square miles of Alaskan terrain. Winter days there are short and cold, with temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit.

The park originally began as a way to protect Dall sheep. Today, an estimated 2,000 big-horned sheep brave the chilly climate. Red foxes, snowshoe hares, and dozens of bird species are also around, in addition to grizzlies, wolves, and moose. Even a small wood frog, the park's only amphibian, can survive the subarctic environment.

In the 1960s, the Pretty Rocks landslide began cracking the road leading to the park. In 2014, the landslide was moving a few inches every year. By 2021, it was moving a few inches per hour. The road is now closed at about its halfway point, cutting off vehicle access to sites like Wonder Lake.

While the annual average temperature of the park was once well below freezing, it's now close to 32 °F, according to NPS. The warmer weather and melting permafrost is making the landslide move more quickly. The road is cut into a rock glacier, "and little bits of climate warming are causing this big kind of slump, and the road is falling off the cliff," said Cassidy Jones, a senior visitation program manager with NPCA.

At Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, visitors can enjoy over 1,300 square miles of trails, trees, foothills, and lakes. Groves of sequoia trees dominate some parts of the landscape, including the famous General Sherman tree towering almost 275 feet high. With its 100-foot circumference, it's one of the largest trees by volume in the world.

Closer to the ground, vivid flora like Evalyn's jewel flower grow and kingsnakes slither. Gophers, skunks, and squirrels scamper about, along with larger mammals like black bears, mule deer, and mountain lions. The parks span a range of habitats, making it a bird-watcher's paradise.

In 2021, lightning struck several areas, igniting what became the KNP Complex Fire. A year earlier, the Castle Fire also ravaged Sequoia National Park. Fires over those two years killed between 8,400 to 12,000 sequoias. Some of the trees were thousands of years old.

Forest fires aren't uncommon, but the sequoias were already vulnerable after a lengthy drought. A combination of low humidity and high temperatures can be a dangerous combination when fires erupt. "Fires have gotten bigger and hotter," Jones said.

Sequoias have long been able to withstand fires, she said. "It tells you something different is going on in terms of just the way the fire is behaving, in the amplification of fire weather," she said.

Covering 3,500 miles, most of it in Wyoming, Yellowstone became the US's first national park in 1872. It's home to Old Faithful, as well as many more geysers and hot springs.

Visitors sometimes have to halt their vehicles for bison crossing the road, and moose, bobcats, badgers, bats, and the many other species that live in the park.

However, warmer temperatures are speeding up snowmelt, changing vegetation, and leading to less water in some areas — all of which will likely force some wildlife to relocate. Every year, pronghorn antelope migrate through the park, a journey that's already risky as they cross over roads and fences. A lack of water and food could alter their path.

A mix of rain and snowmelt caused severe flooding in June 2022. The rushing water damaged roads, structures, and trails. NPS called it an unprecedented, 500-year flood. While the disaster was rare, warmer temperatures are increasing snowmelt and rain is falling instead of snow. Floods could become more common as the climate continues to change.

Along the California-Nevada border, Death Valley draws visitors keen to see the salt flats, sand dunes, and craters. It's 3.4 million acres of wilderness, making it one of the largest national parks in the country. At night, its remote location and aridity make it ideal for stargazing.

The scorching desert climate might not seem hospitable to many kinds of life. Yet jackrabbits, bats, tortoises, and roadrunners have all thrived in the park.

Extreme heat is nothing new for Death Valley. But in recent years, temperatures regularly soar past 125 degrees Fahrenheit in July. Plus, triple-digits can extend into October, and the nights don't get as cool.

The sizzling weather can be dangerous for visitors and residents, and plants and animals have difficulty coping, too. Some animals may start migrating to cooler climates, but some species may not survive. For example, the extremely rare Devils Home pupfish population, found only in Death Valley, has been in decline since the 1990s.

Located in Southern Florida, the Everglades National Park is a patchwork of unique ecosystems, from mangroves to pinelands. With 1.5 million acres of land, it has space for estuaries, giant cypress trees, and marshy rivers.

With so many habitats, a huge range of species create the delicate web of life that is the Everglades. Dozens of species of lizards and snakes scuttle and slither, while ducks, doves, and nighthawks mingle not far from flamingos. River otters and manatees also swim through different parts of the park.

Elevated temperatures, more-intense hurricanes, and rising sea levels are among the challenges the Everglades face. When salty seawater seeps into the park's coastal landscape, it can harm rare tropical orchids and other vegetation that can't cope with increased salinity.

Cape Sable lies at Florida's southwestern tip. Sea levels have risen at an accelerated pace over the last 100 years, according to NPS. Hurricanes and tropical storms have washed seawater into what was once freshwater marshes and lakes. The incursion threatens not only mangrove forests but wildlife like the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, which is only found in this unique habitat.

Bezos founded Amazon from his garage in Bellevue, Washington, in 1994. Decades later, gone are the photoshoots where he's posing with a softcover while looking bookish.

Now, he's gained pounds of muscle and changed his clothing style. He attributes his new look partly to working out with a celebrity personal trainer and changing his diet.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook from his dorm room at Harvard in 2004.

Zuck, who famously wore the same thing every day to save brainpower for more important decisions, has said goodbye to that era. Instead, Zuck can now be seen sporting graphic tees and chain necklaces.

Like Bezos, he's also gotten more fit. Part of Zuckerberg's physical transformation stems from hobbies like Brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA fighting.

Dell is another member of the college dropouts-turned-tech founders club. He started his company while still enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin.

While you probably won't catch him rocking a t-shirt to a professional event, he's appeared to prefer to drop the glasses since then.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in 1998. They met as students at Stanford and built Google from a garage they rented from the late Susan Wojcicki, who was later YouTube's CEO.

The photo at left shows Musk in 1999, around the time the "PayPal mafia" was formed.

Musk has said he doesn't care for exercise and "almost never" works out, though he's credited fasting and the weight loss drug Wegovy with his appearance today.

Gates and the late Paul Allen cofounded Microsoft from a garage in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1975.

Gates left Microsoft's board in 2020 and today spends more of his time focused on the philanthropic foundation he started with his now-ex-wife, Melinda French Gates.

Half a century later, he's still rocking glasses — with some different frames.

Twitter was founded in 2006. Cofounder Jack Dorsey has been seen with a full beard pretty regularly since departing as CEO and focusing his efforts more on cryptocurrency at Block, formerly Square.

Richard Branson started the Virgin brand in 1970 with a mail-order record business.

At 73 years old today, Branson's day-to-day life still features plenty of exercise, from tennis and cycling to kite-surfing. As such, he's usually sporting a tan.

Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma disappeared from public view in 2020 after criticizing China's financial regulation system.

He resurfaced in Thailand in 2022 and has been teaching as a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo.

Anne Wojcicki cofounded genetic testing company 23andMe in 2006. She is the younger sister of late former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.

Whitney Wolfe Herd co-founded Tinder before founding Bumble in 2014. She stepped down as CEO of the dating app last year.

Herd became the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world on the heels of Bumble's IPO.

The entrepreneur currently serves as executive chairman on Bumble's board of directors.

Evan Spiegel co-founded Snap, which owns services like Snapchat, in 2011. The company's success made him the world's youngest billionaire in 2015, when he was 25.

While he'll often suit up or don a tux when attending a more formal event with his wife, Miranda Kerr, he's often seen in a white or black t-shirt and jeans.

Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph cofounded Netflix in 1997 as a DVD-by-mail service provider before it would become the streaming giant it is today. Hastings gave up the CEO title in January 2023, though he still serves as board chairman.

More recently, you can catch him in snowboarding attire after he bought a ski mountain in Utah.

Altman is best known as the CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, but his first startup was Loopt, a mobile service that allowed for real-time location sharing with friends.

The picture at left shows him in those days, circa 2006. In 2008, he was sporting two polo shirts with a double-popped collar on stage at Apple's WWDC conference. 15 years later, however, he's worn a tuxedo to the White House while continuing to keep it casual during interviews with more casual looks too.

Big Lots has said it will close several stores in the Washington, DC area. This store, located in a strip mall about an hour outside of DC, is one of a few that will remain open.

It definitely wasn't peak planting or grilling season anymore when I visited this store in mid-September.

This Big Lots store had several aisles of shelf-stable grocery items, from chips to cake mixes.

Big Lots acquires many products from closeouts, which happen when the retailer's suppliers get rid of something at a sizable discount.

That strategy extends to food, which Big Lots acquires "for a variety of different reasons, including other retailers canceling orders or going out of business, production overruns, or marketing or packaging changes," the company wrote in its latest annual filing with the SEC.

I recognized some big food brands, such as Hellmann's mayonnaise. Others, such as "Totally Tomato" ketchup, were foreign to me.

Prime is facing several lawsuits, including at least two that claim the brand's sales this year have been slower than anticipated, BI reported last month.

I found it interesting that a store focused so much on selling closeout merchandise also has so many products under its own brand. Besides this toilet paper, I also found Big Lots-branded paper plates, markers, and puppy training pads.

On average, Big Lots stores had an average of 23,000 square feet of selling space in 2023, according to the company's annual filing with the SEC. That's tiny compared to almost any big-box store: The average Walmart takes up 105,000 square feet, according to a company filing.

Yet Big Lots had a lot of departments, from kitchen supplies to furniture to groceries. The selection within each was limited, and it felt to me like the store was trying to be everything at once.

The 99-cent Halloween-themed socks were similar to what I've seen at Dollar General and Dollar Tree stores.

Signs on the mattresses advertised Big Lots' own credit card, which offers interest-free payments on big purchases.

It reminded me of Ikea's Kallax shelving units.

These shelves were next to a selection of plastic storage containers and other home goods.

I found this selection of DVD movies, including "Inception," released in 2010, and "War Dogs," which came out in 2016.

It's been at least a decade since I saw this many DVDs in one place.

I found this puzzle in the toy section for $6. It was one of the most unusual things I found in the store, both because "Sixteen Candles" came out forty years ago and because the manufacturer leaned on the Blockbuster name.

Maybe it was just the rows of fluorescent lighting on the ceiling, but this Big Lots store felt like something out of the 1990s.

Big Lots customers should still expect "extreme bargains" at its stores despite its ongoing bankruptcy, the company says on a website with information about the filing.

But this 2-for-$5 deal on two-liter bottles of Coca-Cola sodas was representative of the prices I saw at this Big Lots store: Big Lots' pricing was mostly in-line with other places where I could buy similar stuff.

In addition to the $6 puzzle, I found a pack of 100 disposable gloves for $1.99, a slightly better deal that I've seen elsewhere.

Big Lots had the range of products that I'd associate with a big-box store like Walmart or Target. But it didn't have the same selection within each category that I'm used to at those stores.

The company's focus on closeout merchandise also reminded me of off-price retailers like TJ Maxx and Ross, but those stores seem to have a narrower focus on home goods, clothing, and accessories than Big Lots does.

And if you need ketchup, chips, or other groceries, there's no shortage of supermarkets near this Big Lots. I counted at least seven within a mile of the store, including an Aldi, a Safeway, and a local organic market — and each has fresh produce and meat as well.

From Sears to Bed Bath & Beyond, plenty of once-prominent retailers have gone through bankruptcies, closed stores, and, in some cases, shut down completely. At the same time, Walmart, Target, and Amazon have continued to attract customers.

Based on my trip there, I don't see a reason to keep shopping at Big Lots. If the chain wants to survive — and avoid the fate of Sears — it will need to offer shoppers something that they can't get anywhere else.

Do you work at a major retailer and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]

They had a previously unannounced meeting at the White House in September 2019.

"Mark is in Washington, D.C., meeting with policymakers to hear their concerns and talk about future internet regulation. He also had a good, constructive meeting with President Trump at the White House today," a Meta spokesperson said at the time.

"‪Nice meeting with Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook in the Oval Office today," Trump said of their meeting.

Trump, Zuckerberg, and Peter Thiel had a secret dinner in October 2019.

Thiel, who cofounded PayPal and Palantir, was the first outside investor in Facebook; he was a vocal supporter of Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

"We talked about a number of things that were on his mind, and some of the topics that you read about in the news around our work," Zuckerberg said of the dinner in an interview with "CBS This Morning."

Zuckerberg was in DC to testify before Congress about Facebook's cryptocurrency, Libra.

In 2021, Trump praised Nigeria for banning Twitter.

"More COUNTRIES should ban Twitter and Facebook for not allowing free and open speech — all voices should be heard," Trump said in a statement at the time.

"Perhaps I should have done it while I was President," he added. "But Zuckerberg kept calling me and coming to the White House for dinner telling me how great I was."

Nigeria lifted its ban on Twitter after seven months.

In 2021, Meta "indefinitely" suspended Trump's accounts following the January 6 Capitol riots, citing "use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government."

"His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world," Zuckerberg wrote in a post at the time. "We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect -- and likely their intent -- would be to provoke further violence."

In the time since the suspension, Facebook's Oversight Board examined the decision.

Eventually, Meta decided to reinstate Trump's account.

It did so while putting "new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses," including bigger penalties for any violations of Meta's rules.

In July, Meta removed the additional guardrails that remained in place on Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts following their reinstatement.

"In assessing our responsibility to allow political expression, we believe that the American people should be able to hear from the nominees for President on the same basis," Meta said in a statement at the time. "As a result, former President Trump, as the nominee of the Republican Party, will no longer be subject to the heightened suspension penalties."

Meta added that it would "review accounts subject to this protocol on a periodic basis to determine whether heightened suspension penalties for Community Standards violations remain appropriate."

"We should be suing Google and Facebook and all that," he said in a June 2019 interview with Fox Business. "Which, perhaps we will."

Trump made the remarks in the context of fines the European Union has levied against big tech firms like Google for breaching the bloc's antitrust rules.

Trump filed suit against Facebook, Google, Twitter, and the companies' respective CEOs in July 2021, alleging they unlawfully censor him and other conservatives.

In May 2022, Trump's lawsuit against Twitter was dismissed.

Zuckerberg expressed awe over Trump's response to getting shot.

"Seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag is one of the most badass things I've ever seen in my life," Zuckerberg told Bloomberg of the attempted Trump assassination. "On some level as an American, it's like hard to not get kind of emotional about that spirit and that fight, and I think that that's why a lot of people like the guy."

But the Meta CEO said he wasn't planning to endorse any candidate for president this election cycle.

When asked about the shooting, Meta AI, in some widely-circulated instances, claimed Trump wasn't shot.

"He actually apologized; he said they'd made a mistake," Trump said on "Mornings with Maria" on Fox Business. "He actually announced he's not going to support a Democrat because he can't because he respected me for what I did that day."

A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment but didn't dispute that the two had talked. The spokesperson also referred BI to Zuckerberg's statement last month that he wouldn't be endorsing any presidential candidate in 2024.

As for the Meta AI posts about the shooting, Meta said in a July blog post: "In both cases, our systems were working to protect the importance and gravity of this event. And while neither was the result of bias, it was unfortunate and we understand why it could leave people with that impression. That is why we are constantly working to make our products better and will continue to quickly address any issues as they arise."

In July, Trump said he'd pursue "Election Fraudsters" if re-elected and that they'd "be sent to prison for long periods of time."

"We already know who you are. DON'T DO IT! ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!" Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time.

Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated roughly $400 million to nonprofits in 2020 to help state and local governments conduct a presidential election during an unprecedented pandemic. Republicans have remained furious over the donations. Meta has repeatedly tried to repair relationships, but many in the GOP remain incensed even though there's no evidence that the funds favored Democrats.

Amid continued criticism of his donations, Zuckerberg announced he would not make a similar contribution ahead of the 2024 election.

Politico reported that Trump included a picture of himself with the Meta CEO, with the caption, "He would bring his very nice wife to dinners, be as nice as anyone could be, while always plotting to install shameful Lock Boxes in a true PLOT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT."

It's unclear when Trump wrote the caption, though he appears to be referring to a $420 million contribution Zuckerberg and his wife made to fund election infrastructure in 2020.

While in office, Trump signed an executive order to ban TikTok, which President Biden revoked upon taking office after Trump.

Trump now views a TikTok ban differently.

"Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm for TikTok because you need competition," Trump told Bloomberg Businessweek in July. "If you don't have TikTok, you have Facebook and Instagram, and that's, you know, that's Zuckerberg."

In March, he made similar comments in an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box" and referred to Facebook as "an enemy of the people."

"There's a lot of good and there's a lot of bad with TikTok," he said. "But the thing I don't like is that without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger. And I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people."

Like other major CEOs, Zuckerberg quickly praised Trump after it became apparent that the former president had won the 2024 election.

"Congratulations to President Trump on a decisive victory. We have great opportunities ahead of us as a country," Zuckerberg wrote on Threads on November 6. "Looking forward to working with you and your administration."

Zuckerberg was invited to dine with Trump on Thanksgiving eve, a Meta spokesperson said.

The Meta CEO traveled to Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Palm Beach club nicknamed "The Winter White House." Trump has been holding meetings there with potential cabinet picks and other top staffers as he prepares to retake the White House in January.

The New York Times reported that Zuckerberg "initiated" the meeting.

Some in Trump's orbit are taking notice of Zuckerberg's efforts.

"Mark Zuckerberg has been very clear about his desire to be a supporter of this and a participant in this change that we're seeing all around America, all around the world with this reform movement that Donald Trump is leading," longtime Trump advisor Stephen Miller, who will also return to the White House, told Fox News.

Miller cautioned "we'll see what comes" of Zuckerberg's rapprochement but made clear that the Meta CEO "understands" the change Trump is seeking.

On December 11, The Wall Street Journal reported that Meta had donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund, telling his campaign of the plan ahead of the dinner between the billionaires.

From the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Mediterranean coast, Spain has a diverse landscape with bustling cities and charming towns in between.

Compared to other European countries, its cost of living is relatively low. Vibrant nightlife, sunny beaches, high-quality healthcare, and a relaxed lifestyle all make Americans' lists of reasons to move to Spain, while some retirees find their money goes further in Spain.

Non-Spanish and non-Catalan speakers may have trouble navigating some parts of the country, and smaller homes, a slower pace, and unfamiliar bureaucracy all take getting used to for some Americans.

Spain offers a yearlong digital nomad visa. Retirees can apply for a non-lucrative visa (or NLV), which allows them to live, but not work, in the country.

GDP: $1.73 trillion

Economy ranking based on GDP: #15

Japan has a population of over 124 million people, and just a tiny fraction of that number are US citizens.

Because the country's population is over 97% Japanese, Americans tend to stick out.

"It was a culture shock to see only one type of ethnicity all around me at all times," Genie Doi, who is Korean-American, recently told BI.

However, Japan's safety, scenery, and quality of life can be huge incentives to move there.

"I was very concerned about gun violence, which is almost nonexistent in Japan," Floridian Alex Evans told BI in 2023. He and his family moved to Mukaishima Island, Japan, in June 2022.

Other US citizens have said some challenges living in the country include a lack of size inclusivity in clothing, difficulties with the language — even with years of study — and the time it takes to travel to other countries from an island nation.

Foreigners who want to live in Japan for six months can apply for a "digital nomad" residence. Those looking to stay even longer can look into visas on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs site.

GDP: $4.07 trillion

Economy ranking based on GDP: #4

From 1954's "Sabrina" to "Emily in Paris," Americans' fascination with France has existed for decades.

US citizens who immigrate there rave about everything from the food to the fashion to the art and architecture.

However, at least a few US citizens have found the visa process tricky and had difficulty finding housing.

Particularly in Paris, some Americans said racism is prevalent. Others had trouble making friends or experienced a language barrier if they didn't speak French.

Filling out lots of forms and waiting for answers isn't uncommon. "The bureaucracy is unbelievably frustrating," Rick Jones, who moved to Paris in 2018, told BI in July.

Francophiles hoping to work or attend school can apply for residence cards or student visas.

GDP: $3.17 trillion

Economy ranking based on GDP: #7

Visitors flock to South Korea to revel in the land of K-pop and K-dramas or to experience the food, shopping, museums, and natural wonders.

US citizens who stay longer have touted universal healthcare, a good quality of life, and convenient public transportation as reasons to love Korea. The high-speed trains cover much of the country, making it easy to travel between big cities.

Among the challenges new residents to Korea face are difficulty with the language, high housing prices, finding employment, and the distance from the US.

Moving to South Korea requires a visa, with most requirements involving work, school, or family. Job hunters can stay for six months with the possibility of extending the visa to a year.

GDP: $1.87 trillion

Economy ranking based on GDP: #12

Australia is known for its beautiful beaches and gorgeous weather. For those looking to live there permanently, though, it also boasts a solid economy, good healthcare, childcare stipends, and perks like retirement assistance.

Melbourne and Sydney are among the top 10 most livable cities in the 2024 Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Liveability Index. The country is also one of the most welcoming of migrants, based on a 2019 Gallup survey.

However, for Americans, it is very far from home. It can take nearly 24 hours to travel from the East Coast of the US to Australia.

Another potential downside is that the country's drier, hotter weather is expected to worsen due to the climate crisis, according to the Australian government.

There are visa options for people who want to call Australia home. However, its immigration laws tend to favor the wealthy, giving preference to individuals with education qualifications, professional experience, and who are English-speaking. The Global Talent Program offers visas to "exceptionally talented and prominent individuals."

GDP: $1.8 trillion

Economy ranking based on GDP: #14

For decades, Germany has been Europe's economic powerhouse. Many American immigrants to the country found job opportunities, reliable public healthcare, affordable childcare, and a generous amount of time off from work.

Weeks of vacation time allowed them the opportunity to travel around Europe. The country shares a border with Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland.

Recently, Germany's economic growth has slowed, the Associated Press reported in 2023. This fall, the government announced tighter border controls and some political analysts are concerned about the re-emergence of far-right politics in recent elections.

Skilled workers can apply for visas and stay for 12 months while looking for a job. The country also recently eased some of its rules around obtaining citizenship, the AP reported in January.

GDP: $4.71 trillion

Economy ranking based on GDP: #3

Over the years, Israel has attracted high-tech startups and wealthy individuals, fueling a luxury real estate boom in some cities.

However, Israel's conflict with Hamas and the continued invasion of Gaza have slowed the inflow of millionaires who no longer consider the country a safe haven, according to one investment migration advisory firm.

While many US citizens move to cities far from the conflicts, others are living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Some have blamed these settlers for increased violence against Palestinians over the past year.

Those wishing to move to Israel need a visa. The country's Law of Return allows those with Jewish parents or grandparents to apply for citizenship.

GDP: $528 billion

Economy ranking based on GDP: #30

Like Canada, the UK is full of native English speakers, which can ease the transition to living in a new country.

The financial website Investopedia found that prescriptions, groceries, and rent are often cheaper in the UK compared to the US, but gas and energy prices can be higher depending on where you live.

Americans living in the UK who spoke with BI have cited its National Health Service, proximity to the rest of Europe, and work-life balance as benefits of their new home.

These perks can offset lower wages and homesickness.

"Despite lower take-home pay, I'm way less stressed," Wales resident Regina Beach told BI in 2023. "The five-weeks paid holiday — that everyone actually takes — certainly helps."

Some potential downsides, which Americans may struggle to adjust to include smaller homes and the rainy weather. The UK's pub culture isn't for everyone, either.

You can apply for work and study visas to start living in the UK. The government's website provides information on settlement, which allows you to live, work, and study there for good.

GDP: $3.59 trillion

Economy ranking based on GDP: #6

The US's neighbor to the north has scenic beauty, vibrant cities, a large English-speaking population, and universal healthcare. These are all attractive reasons for Americans to relocate, though temporary or permanent residency is a little more difficult to attain than in Mexico.

Americans won't necessarily find affordable housing in some of the country's larger cities, like Toronto and Vancouver. But for some, Canada offers a feeling of safety, especially with the US's high rates of gun violence.

Despite the benefits of universal healthcare, some transplants from the US found that there can be long waiting lists for specialists and certain treatments.

While the country does offer paths to becoming a permanent resident or citizen, they're often tied to work or family connections. Skilled workers and entrepreneurs can apply for visas, and relatives can sponsor certain family members so they can live, study, and work in the country.

GDP: $2.21 trillion

Economy ranking based on GDP: #9

Mexico draws many Americans who want to stay close to friends and family while settling in a new country.

The ability to hop across the border to use their Medicare is also important for many retirees, she said.

Housing, groceries, and healthcare are typically less expensive than in the US, though the influx of newcomers is causing rising rents and housing shortages in some areas like Mexico City.

Many US citizens obtain a temporary resident visa that allows them to live in Mexico for up to four years. Retirees looking to stay can apply for a permanent resident visa, which allows them to stay indefinitely.

GDP: $1.85 trillion, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Economy ranking based on GDP: #13