President Donald Trump has won a $24.5 million Settlement from Alphabet-owned online video sharing platform YouTube following the suspension of his account in the wake of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots.
YouTube joins Meta and Twitter, now called X, as the third and final major social media platform that Trump sued over his account’s removal. YouTube suspended Trump’s channel on its platform on January 12, 2021, saying his content violated policies against inciting violence.
A court filing shows that $22 million of the settlement will be contributed on Trump’s behalf to the Trust for the National Mall. The nonprofit is focused on supporting the construction of a new 90,000-square-foot White House State Ballroom. The remaining $2.5 million will be paid to other plaintiffs, including the American Conservative Union, author Naomi Wolf, and others.
Earlier this year, Meta settled for $25 million after banning Trump, and X reportedly paid $10 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.
YouTube only reinstated Trump’s channel in March 2023, over two years after the initial ban. In the lawsuit, Trump argued the ban was unconstitutional and violated his First Amendment rights.
As part of the negotiations over the deal, mediation sessions were reportedly held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in May 2025, where the President invited Google CEO Sundar Pichai and co-founder Sergey Brin.
Notably, John P. Coale, Trump’s lead attorney, says that Trump’s return to the White House was instrumental in accelerating the settlement.
“If he had not been re-elected, we would have been in court for 1,000 years,” per The WSJ.