Google-owned YouTube has agreed to a $24.5 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit filed by former President Donald Trump. The suit stemmed from YouTube’s decision to suspend Trump’s account following the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, which occurred shortly after his loss in the 2020 presidential election.
According to court documents filed Monday, $22 million of the settlement will go toward Trump's contributions to the Trust for the National Mall and the construction of a White House ballroom. The remaining $2.5 million will be distributed to other plaintiffs, including author Naomi Wolf and the American Conservative Union.
YouTube is now the third major tech company to settle with Trump after similar lawsuits against Meta (Facebook’s parent company) and Twitter, now known as X following its acquisition by Elon Musk in 2022. Meta agreed to a $25 million settlement, while X settled for $10 million.
Legal experts had initially predicted Trump was unlikely to win any of the cases. However, after Musk acquired Twitter and supported Trump’s successful 2024 re-election campaign, the dynamics shifted. Musk also later clashed with Trump after assisting in cutting down government payroll costs during the early months of Trump’s second term.
Notably, both Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg attended Trump’s second inauguration in January, signaling a more collaborative stance from Big Tech compared to his first term.
In addition to the YouTube case, Trump has reached other high-profile settlements:
ABC News paid $15 million in December 2024 to help fund Trump’s presidential library, settling a defamation suit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ false claim that Trump had been found liable for raping E. Jean Carroll.
In July, Paramount agreed to a $16 million settlement over editing disputes involving CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
The settlement with YouTube does not admit any wrongdoing, according to the filing. Google confirmed the agreement but declined to provide further comment. Trump’s YouTube account was reinstated in 2023.
Despite the sizable payout, the settlement is minor for Alphabet, whose market value has soared to nearly $3 trillion, a $600 billion increase since Trump returned to office.
Details of the settlement surfaced just a week before a scheduled October 6 court hearing before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers in Oakland, California.