Nick Clegg departs from Meta ahead of Trump's potential return as U.S. President

Sir Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister, announced that he will be stepping down from his role as president of global affairs at Meta after nearly seven years with the company. He shared the news in a post on Meta's Facebook on Thursday.

He will be succeeded by his current deputy, Joe Kaplan, a Republican who previously served as deputy chief of staff at the White House during President George W. Bush's administration and is recognized for managing the company's relations with Republicans. Sir Nick mentioned that he would spend "a few months transitioning" and representing Facebook at international events before embarking on "new ventures."

Sir Nick’s resignation comes just weeks before Donald Trump returns to the White House. 

The president-elect has consistently criticized Meta and other platforms for censorship and suppressing conservative voices. His relationship with Mr. Zuckerberg has been especially tense after Facebook and Instagram suspended the former president's accounts for two years in 2021, citing his praise for those involved in the Capitol violence on January 6.

Most recently, Trump threatened to imprison Zuckerberg if he interfered in the 2024 election and even called Facebook an “enemy of the people” in March.

However, the tension between the two seems to be easing, as the pair have been dining together at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida since the U.S. election.

Zuckerberg also congratulated him on his victory and donated $1m to an inauguration fund.

Some analysts view Sir Nick's departure as a signal of a shift in leadership at Washington.

He joined Facebook in 2018 after losing his parliamentary seat in 2017 and was eventually elevated to the role of president of global affairs, a key position at Meta.

He played a crucial role in establishing Meta's oversight board, a group of experts responsible for making decisions and advising Zuckerberg on matters related to content moderation, privacy and other policies.

Sir Nick has openly expressed his opinions about Trump's close ally, Elon Musk, referring to him as a political puppet master and accusing him of transforming X(previously Twitter) into a "one-man hyper-partisan hobby horse."

The former Liberal Democrat leader initially relocated to Silicon Valley but returned to London in 2022.

In his statement, he expressed his move to "new adventures" with "deep gratitude and pride" for what he had been a part of.

He said: "My time at the company coincided with a significant resetting of the relationship between 'big tech' and the societal pressures manifested in new laws, institutions and norms affecting the sector.

"I hope I have played some role in seeking to bridge the very different worlds of tech and politics – worlds that will continue to interact in unpredictable ways across the globe."

He added: "I am simply thrilled that my deputy, Joel Kaplan, will now become Meta's chief global affairs officer…He is quite clearly the right person for the right job at the right time!"