Leadership
Meta Recruits Democratic and Trump-Era Aides for Bipartisan Influence Team
By News Desk ·
Key takeaways
- Michael Hacker, a longtime aide to Rep. Jim Clyburn, joined Meta as VP of compute initiatives.
- Nick Schmidt, a former top aide to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, joined as director of strategic partnership management.
- Josh Raffel and Pat Trueman, both former Trump administration or campaign officials, also recently joined Meta.
Meta is assembling a bipartisan team of Washington veterans, hiring a longtime aide to Rep. Jim Clyburn and a former top aide to Biden Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Yahoo reported. The company did not comment on the meetings or the new hires.
Meta's Democratic and Republican Hires
Michael Hacker, a longtime aide to House Democratic power broker Jim Clyburn, recently joined Meta as VP of compute initiatives. Nick Schmidt, a former top aide to Biden Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, joined the company as director of strategic partnership management.
Meta has also hired several former Trump administration officials to keep its ties to the White House intact. Josh Raffel, who worked with Meta president and vice chairman Dina Powell McCormick during the first Trump administration, recently came on as VP of compute initiatives. Pat Trueman, a former senior official on Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, recently joined Meta's U.S. policy operation.
The recruitment effort is being run by Powell McCormick, a former bank executive and official in the first Trump administration, according to the report. In August, Zuckerberg and Powell McCormick met with the Democratic House Commission on Artificial Intelligence and the Innovation Economy at the invitation of Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.).
Gottheimer, in a phone call with Axios on Friday, called the meeting "incredibly productive." He said he wanted the executives' perspective as lawmakers try to put together a legislative framework for AI. The commission was particularly interested in the company's local data center investments, including a large investment in Louisiana.
Powell McCormick and other Meta executives last month met with Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) and prominent Louisiana Democrats, including former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, at a bipartisan dinner to discuss the investment.
Meta's Prior Leadership Moves
In June 2026, Meta invested $900 million in Indian fintech CRED for approximately 20% ownership and appointed CRED founder Kunal Shah as global head of WhatsApp, according to akta.pro company records. The same records list Meta's workforce at 77,986 as of 2026 before 10% layoffs beginning May 20, affecting approximately 8,000 workers.
Earlier Washington and Regulatory Events
On October 30, 2026, Britain's competition regulator opened an investigation into Meta's terms for publishers and advertisers, Yahoo reported. The same day, Meta, TikTok and X lost a legal challenge against UK regulator Ofcom over data demands under the 2023 Online Safety Act, with the High Court rejecting their argument that the notices create unprecedented regulatory burdens.
Also on October 30, 2026, Türkiye's education minister said the country could sue other social media platforms after Meta over content harming children's development, with Meta as the first target, according to Hurriyetdailynews.