Dina Powell McCormick’s “uniquely suited to help Meta manage [its] next phase of growth.”

She’s also “a fantastic, and very talented, person.”

The first description of Powell McCormick, whose husband is GOP senator Dave McCormick, comes from former nerd wunderkind and current swag-o-holic, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu master, Mark Zuckerberg.

The second description comes from former reality TV show host and current acting president of Venezuela, Donald Trump.

As you might’ve heard (or maybe not, given that the “other” Powell monopolized market-related headlines on Monday), Zuckerberg’s installing McCormick in a newly-created, top-level position at Meta where she’ll run the company’s AI infrastructure buildout, a role that’ll include liaising with the US government.

This was tipped last month when she resigned from the company’s board. At the time, sources said she intended to stay in the proverbial loop as an advisor to Meta’s senior ranks with a focus “on investments and strategic counsel.”

On Monday, Zuckerberg effectively formalized that role. Powell McCormick will be “President and Vice Chairman,” answering only to Mark himself.

The press release announcing her appointment says Powell McCormick’s “been deeply engaged” with Meta’s “accelerated pursuit of frontier AI and superintelligence.” As noted above, Powell McCormick will be in charge of managing Meta’s AI investments, which are obviously the company’s top priority.

In that capacity, it helps that she has inroads to The White House. Specifically, she was Trump’s deputy national security adviser and might’ve become his UN ambassador were she not too busy “driv[ing] long-term economic growth and opportunity around the world” (to employ the polite description of her achievements at 200 West) during a second stint at Goldman, where she worked for a total of 16 years. (The FT once called her “Goldman Sachs’s roving diplomat,” a reference to her roles in the George W. Bush administration and political connections more generally.)

Powell McCormick’s an impressive individual to put it mildly. Her CV’s the kind of resume that’d unlock almost any door in the world, but you’ll be forgiven for casting a wary eye at a setup wherein one of the most important players in the AI space has placed a Trump favorite at the helm of its efforts to build superintelligence.

There’s no question that Powell McCormick will come in handy when it comes time to borrow more money to fund infrastructure projects, but to many, this’ll feel far (far) too chummy.

Note that Powell McCormick is (or, I guess, was) head of client relations at BDT & MSD Partners. That’d be the same BDT & MSD Partners which (along with Trump-friendly Axos Bank) provided a significant share of the financing for CGI Merchant Group’s 2021 acquisition of The Trump Organization’s long-term lease for D.C.’s Old Post Office building, also known as The Trump International Hotel.

CGI defaulted just two years later, leaving BDT & MSD Partners with no choice but to take the keys to what’s now the Waldorf Astoria Washington D.C. in foreclosure. (They bought the rights for $100 million in August of 2024.)

Fast forward to 2025 and the firm was “quietly shopping,” as Semafor put it, those same rights for $300 million. Eric Trump met with the bank’s executives at Mar-a-Lago early last year to inquire about buying back the lease.

The property ran up losses of nearly $75 million over the course of Trump’s first term in office, a period during which Trump’s critics variously suggested the hotel was “a venue for illicit influence peddling,” to quote The Guardian.

Suffice to say there are a lot of connections, both direct and tangential, between Powell McCormick and the Trump administration. And now she’ll run AI infrastructure for Meta at a time when Zuckerberg’s extremely keen to endear himself to The White House.

According to Gregg Lemkau, BDT & MSD Partners’ co-CEO, Powell McCormick will remain on the firm’s advisory board even as she steps into her new role.

“Congratulations to DINA, WHO HAS JUST BEEN NAMED THE NEW PRESIDENT OF META,” Trump shrieked, in all-caps on TruthSocial. “A great choice by Mark Z!!!”

Note that the Egyptian-born, Arabic-fluent Powell McCormick has deep experience in the Mideast. Her first major role in the Bush administration involved “trying to sell America to the Arab and Muslim worlds,” as The New York Times put it, two years into the Iraq war.

The Saudis and the Emirates are of course aiming to be big players in the AI space, and Trump’s affinity for Mideast monarchs is no secret, nor are his family’s investment interests in the region.

In November, Trump and Mohammed bin Salman inked an MOU granting the kingdom access to cutting-edge American AI technology. That evening, Trump hosted a lavish White House event to celebrate the Crown Prince’s presence in D.C. Powell McCormick was on the guest list.

The next day, Dave McCormick posted a series of pictures of himself and his wife posing for selfies at the dinner with Howard Lutnick, Pam Bondi, Joint Chiefs Chair Dan Caine and Tim Cook. “It was an honor for Dina and me to attend,” he wrote. “We had many productive conversations about a path to greater Middle East peace abroad and the benefits of foreign direct investment here at home.”

The next day, the Commerce Department approved the sale of 70,000 Nvidia Blackwells to the Saudis and the UAE.