YouTube, Disney and Meta have all settled. Inside President Trump's $90 million payday

Cerys Davies, Los Angeles Times on Oct 1, 2025

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On Monday, YouTube became the latest media and tech company to settle one of President Donald Trump's lawsuits.

The Google-owned streamer agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit Trump filed after his account was banned following the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol. That brings Trump's haul from media and tech companies to more than $90 million in the last year.

Some of these suits deal with conflicts the president has experienced with news networks such as ABC and CBS. Others confront the fallout from the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Some of the settlement money will pay for renovations to a presidential library Trump is building on 2.6 acres of waterfront property in Miami. Other funds will go to the nonprofit Trust for the National Mall, with the intention of building a Mar-a-Lago-style ballroom, which is expected to cost $200 million overall.

Here's a rundown of the payouts:

YouTube: $24.5 million

After the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, YouTube suspended the president's account on the platform because of Trump's alleged role in the insurrection. At the time, the company had cited "concerns about the ongoing potential for violence" and violation of its "policies for inciting violence."

Trump's lawsuit, filed in 2021 at the U.S. District Court in Northern California, argued the account's suspension was "censorship." Before the case was settled, YouTube had already lifted its suspension on Trump in March 2023, in light of the then-upcoming presidential race.

In court documents filed Monday, Alphabet, the parent company of YouTube and Google, did not admit any wrongdoing in the matter. The company did not agree to make any policy or product changes in the deal.

Of the $24.5 million, $22 million is going to Trump, who will contribute the money to the Trust for the National Mall, which is "dedicated to restoring, preserving, and elevating the National Mall" as well as supporting the construction of the White House State Ballroom, according to the filing.

Alphabet will also have to pay an additional $2.5 million to other plaintiffs in the case, including the American Conservative Union and writer Naomi Wolf.

Meta and Twitter (X): $35 million

Social media platforms Facebook (now Meta) and Twitter (now X) had suspended Trump's accounts over Jan. 6, 2021. At the time, Twitter put out a statement, saying that recent tweets from his "account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter" had to be suspended to avoid "the risk of further incitement of violence."

Mark Zuckerberg of Meta also posted a statement on Facebook after banning Trump's Meta accounts. He wrote, "We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great."

In July of that year, Trump sued the companies for "censorship."

By January 2023, Meta had reinstated Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts, as had X in 2022.

Shortly before Trump was going to take office for his second term, in January 2025, Meta decided to pay the incoming president $25 million to settle the lawsuit. Elon Musk, who had purchased Twitter and renamed it "X" in the interim, agreed to pay $10 million to settle its Trump case.

Paramount Global: $16 million

Paramount Global agreed to pay $16 million to resolve Trump's legal salvo against "60 Minutes" over the editing of an interview with his 2024 opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump claimed "60 Minutes" edited an interview with Harris to make her look better and bolster her chances in the election. CBS denied the claims, saying the edits were standard and the case was viewed as frivolous by 1st Amendment experts.

Trump wrote on Truth Social that CBS "did everything possible to illegally elect Kamala, including completely and corruptly changing major answers to Interview questions, but it just didn't work for them."

Last May, CBS offered $16 million to settle the civil suit filed in Texas. The lump sum included the president's legal fees and an agreement that "60 Minutes" will release transcripts of interviews with future presidential candidates.

Less than a month after the settlement, the FCC approved Skydance Media's acquisition of Paramount, which owns CBS.

Disney: $16 million

Earlier this year, ABC news anchor George Stephanopoulos appeared on the network's "This Week" news program and asserted that Trump was found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. In May 2023, a jury in New York declined to find Trump liable for rape, but did find him liable for sexual abuse of Carroll.

Trump responded to the on-air comments with a defamation lawsuit filed in federal court in Florida. The lawsuit was settled by ABC News, owned by Disney, last December. Disney agreed to pay $15 million toward Trump's presidential library and $1 million of Trump's legal fees.

The settlement also included an editor's note, posted on the ABC News website, expressing regret for Stephanopoulos' comments.

(Los Angeles Times staff writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.)