YouTube agrees to pay $24.5 million for suspending Trump's account

By 
 September 30, 2025

Shortly before he left office, YouTube took the unprecedented step of banning President Donald Trump's account for allegedly promoting political violence.

Yet in a move which is sure to leave Democrats seething, the social media platform handed Trump a win this week by agreeing to pay $24.6 million.  

Most of the money will go towards new White House ballroom

According to the Washington Post, the agreement came on Monday and was reached in order to settle a multimillion dollar lawsuit against YouTube and its parent company Google.

What's more, the Post explained that $22 million worth of the settlement will go towards construction of a new White House ballroom while the rest is to be divided among other plaintiffs who maintain that YouTube unfairly censored them.

The newspaper pointed out that YouTube's payment to Trump comes on the heels of similar settlements which have been reached with other platforms.

Trump has won a string of high-dollar settlements

Meta is the parent company of Facebook, and it agreed to pay the president $25 million in January for suspending Trump's account around the same time that he was kicked off of YouTube.

Similarly, X agreed in February to a $10 million settlement in response to Trump's complaint that the platform had censored him when it was known as Twitter.

Yet the settlements haven't been limited to big tech companies,as the parent company of CBS agreed to pay Trump $16 million in July to settle allegations that it had deceptively edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Meanwhile, ABC News reached a $15 million deal with the president in December after anchor George Stephanopoulos falsely claimed that Trump had been found liable for rape.

Attorney says ABC was wise to settle with Trump

Attorney Danny Karon told Fox News that ABC made the right decision, saying, "As dumb as George Stephanopoulos was to lie on air about Trump’s civil verdict, ABC News was that smart to settle."

"Channeled through the elements of a defamation claim, the facts supported a verdict for President Trump," the legal expert explained.

"And the longer into a case the parties go, the greater the stakes become, which often results in larger money damages," he stressed.

"That ABC News was able to evade a jury verdict for only $15 million is something for this it should thank President Trump," Karon went on to add.

" A free people [claim] their rights, as derived from the laws of nature."
Thomas Jefferson