Mark Zuckerberg has blamed his long-time lieutenant Sheryl Sandberg for masterminding Facebook’s diversity projects as the billionaire seeks to repair ties with Donald Trump .

In a meeting with Stephen Miller, one of Mr Trump’s most senior advisers, Mr Zuckerberg claimed Ms Sandberg had been behind Meta’s programmes that “encouraged employees’ self-expression” at work, the New York Times reported.

Ms Sandberg, who until 2022 was the technology giant’s chief operating officer, is a long-standing supporter of the Democrats and last year endorsed Kamala Harris’s campaign.

Mr Zuckerberg’s comments come as the billionaire Facebook founder seeks to build ties with Mr Trump ’s incoming White House administration, four years after he suspended the Republican’s account following the Capitol Hill riots on Jan 6 2021.

Last week, Mr Zuckerberg announced a series of sweeping changes to Facebook’s moderation policies , confirming the company would be “getting rid of a number of restrictions on topics like immigration, gender identity and gender and are the subject of frequent political discourse”.

Republicans have long accused the tech giant of biased moderation against conservative views.

Mr Zuckerberg also said on a podcast that companies had been “culturally neutered” by diversity initiatives, adding that Facebook would be embracing “masculine energy” .

In an internal memo last week, Facebook confirmed it would be scrapping its diversity, equity and inclusion team. A company executive said that the term had “become charged, in part because it is understood by some as a practice that suggests preferential treatment of some groups over others”.

A former Google executive, Ms Sandberg joined Facebook in 2008 and served as Mr Zuckerberg’s mentor in key business decisions.

At 15 years his senior, Ms Sandberg handled many of the operations, finance and lobbying decisions at the business, while Mr Zuckerberg pursued its technical aims.

The executive has long been known for her progressive politics, in 2013 writing the business book Lean In to encourage women to be more assertive in the workplace. She stepped down as a Facebook executive in 2022, giving $3m (£2.5m) to the American Civil Liberties Union to campaign for abortion rights.

Despite her close ties to Democratic politicians, including Hilary Clinton, Facebook came under fierce criticism from progressive politicians throughout her tenure, with Facebook blamed for failing to stop fake news and disinformation in 2016. Democrats accused Facebook of enabling the rise of Mr Trump and empowering his supporters.