Joel Kaplan to step down as Meta global affairs chief

Republican lobbyist Joel Kaplan is stepping down as Meta’s global affairs chief after a years-long stint as Mark Zuckerberg’s top political adviser.

Kaplan said in a statement on Tuesday that he would leave the Facebook parent after a 15-year tenure. Meta has not yet named a successor to Kaplan, who is expected to step down next year.

The conservative figure has helped Meta navigate Donald Trump’s second administration at a time when the president and his Maga movement have criticised social media groups for censoring content.

Kaplan joined Meta in 2011 after serving as a clerk for former Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia and as deputy chief of staff for policy in the White House during the George W Bush administration.

He replaced Nick Clegg, a former UK deputy prime minister, as Meta’s president of global affairs early last year.

“[Kaplan] has worked on virtually every tough issue Meta has faced for more than 15 years,” Zuckerberg said in a statement, adding that, “throughout all of it, he’s been a strong advocate for our policies, and a friend to me.”

Zuckerberg has been among the tech executives who have sought to court Trump since his second term began. The Meta chief attended the president’s inauguration in January 2025 and sat next to Trump at a dinner that autumn. Late last year, Meta pledged to invest $600bn in the US through 2028 as it builds its data centre infrastructure.

At the beginning of this year, Meta hired former Goldman Sachs executive Dina Powell McCormick as president. The Silicon Valley power broker, who was a senior official in Trump’s first administration, is overseeing Meta’s vast capital deployment in service of its AI ambitions.

Powell McCormick has rapidly become the company’s public face, including as a member of Trump’s China business delegation in May.

Kaplan’s departure was first reported by Axios.