Google’s YouTube agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the service for suspending his account in 2021, according to court documents.
The settlement, filed in a federal court in California on Monday, will be split in two, with $22 million earmarked for the nonprofit Trust for the National Mall to help build Trump’s Mar-a-Lago-inspired ballroom at the White House. The remaining $2.5 million will go toward the other defendants, including the American Conservative Union, Andrew Baggiani and Naomi Wolf, among other plaintiffs.
The payout marks the last of the three tech companies with pending litigation with Trump in the fallout of the 2020 election, and it is the latest million-dollar deal between a large corporation and a president eager to seek revenge against his enemies.
Meta paid $25 million in January to settle Trump’s lawsuit over his account suspension on the platform, with most of the money meant for Trump’s presidential library. Elon Musk’s X, the platform previously known as Twitter, followed suit in February with a $10 million settlement — with much of it paid to Trump directly.
Google did not respond to an immediate request for comment. A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
More to come…
