Joel Kaplan to leave Meta after 15 years as policy chief

Kaplan will remain for months to assist with transition

Meta policy chief Joel Kaplan announced on X that he would leave Meta after 15 years. Meta confirmed the departure and declined to comment further.

Kaplan said in his post, “I’ve decided the time is right for me to move on from my role as Chief Global Affairs Officer,” and added, “I’ll be at the company for a few months to help with the transition, and then look forward to catching my breath.”

Kaplan joined Meta in 2011 and was elevated to its top policy job in January 2025, shortly after Donald Trump won the presidency. The Wall Street Journal said he had served for years as Meta’s conduit to Republican lawmakers in Washington, D.C. and the broader conservative ecosystem.

The departure comes roughly nine months after Meta hired Dina Powell McCormick, who served in Trump’s first administration, as president. Powell McCormick joined Meta’s board of directors in April 2025 and stepped down from that post at the end of the year to take on a more expansive role as president and vice chairman.

Powell McCormick reports directly to Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg. In the time since taking the expanded role, she has become a public face of the company, frequently speaking at events about its data-center buildout and social-media lawsuits, among other topics.

The announcement came as Meta had started cutting checks to Democrats ahead of the midterm elections, The Wall Street Journal reported. The newspaper said those payments served as a counterbalance to the millions Meta gave to the White House ballroom and other Republican initiatives.

Meta is among the tech companies whose executives and advisers have discussed the likelihood of requests for information, future congressional hearings and subpoenas if Democrats gain control of the U.S. House of Representatives next month, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

Kaplan said he does not yet know what he will do next. He will remain with Meta for a few months to assist with the transition, while Meta said only that it confirmed the departure and declined to comment further.