• YouTube to pay $24.5 million in settlement with Trump over post-Jan. 6 ban.
• $22 million earmarked for a Mar-a-Lago-style ballroom Trump is building at the White House.
• Settlement makes YouTube the last Big Tech platform to resolve Trump lawsuits over social media bans.

WASHINGTON, DC (TDR) — YouTube has agreed to pay Donald Trump $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit over his removal from the platform following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, according to The Wall Street Journal. The deal closes a years-long dispute between the former president and Big Tech companies that banned him in the wake of the attack.

Trump filed the lawsuit against YouTube and its chief executive in 2021, accusing the company of censorship and political bias. Court documents reviewed by The Journal show that $22 million of the settlement will go to the nonprofit Trust for the National Mall, earmarked for the construction of a Mar-a-Lago-style ballroom at the White House. The ballroom, projected to cost $200 million, will be funded by donations from Trump and what officials described as “other patriot donors.”

Another $2.5 million from the settlement will be shared among co-plaintiffs, including the American Conservative Union and writer Naomi Wolf. The agreement does not mention attorney fees.

Last of the Big Tech Cases

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YouTube, owned by Alphabet’s Google, becomes the final social media platform to settle with Trump. Meta previously agreed to a $25 million settlement, much of it designated for Trump’s future presidential library. Elon Musk’s X reached a $10 million settlement, which went directly to Trump. YouTube reinstated Trump’s account in 2023, two years after suspending him over concerns he incited violence.

The Journal noted that YouTube’s decision to settle comes as Google faces mounting pressure from the Justice Department, which is pursuing a breakup of its digital advertising business after a federal judge ruled this spring that the company had monopolized online ads.

Trump’s Legal Team

Trump attorney John P. Coale, who brought the cases with lead litigator John Q. Kelly, said the former president’s 2024 re-election changed the companies’ calculations.

“If he had not been re-elected, we would have been in court for 1,000 years,” Coale told The Journal. “It was his re-election that made the difference.”

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The settlement does not include any admission of wrongdoing by YouTube. Google declined to comment publicly on the case.

Political Significance

The agreement highlights how Trump’s confrontations with social media platforms, once seen as long-shot lawsuits, ended with significant payouts after his return to the White House. It also underscores the continued entanglement of Big Tech companies in political and regulatory battles.

For Trump, the settlements provide both financial and symbolic victories, reinforcing his claims that tech firms overstepped during his post-presidency exile from major platforms. The funding of projects like the White House ballroom and his presidential library signal his intent to turn the settlements into legacy-building ventures.

Will Trump’s legal victories over Big Tech reshape the balance between social media giants and political power?

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