Google-owned YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by United States President Donald Trump over the suspension of his account after the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
According to court documents filed on Monday, $22 million of the settlement will go to Trump, who plans to channel the funds into the Trust for the National Mall and the construction of a White House ballroom. The remaining $2.5 million will be shared among other parties involved in the case, including writer Naomi Wolf and the American Conservative Union.
Trump’s lawsuit, filed more than four years ago, accused YouTube of unfairly silencing him after the Capitol riot that followed his election loss in 2020. His account was suspended along with those of other users accused of spreading misinformation.
Alphabet, the parent company of YouTube, becomes the third major tech firm to settle similar lawsuits from Trump. Earlier this year, Meta, the owner of Facebook, paid $25 million to settle his case, while X — formerly Twitter — agreed to pay $10 million.
Although many legal experts had predicted Trump’s lawsuits were unlikely to succeed, the settlements mark a series of payouts to the former president, who returned to the White House in 2024 after winning re-election.
Google confirmed the settlement but declined to comment further. The company also stressed that the agreement was not an admission of wrongdoing.
Trump’s YouTube account was restored in 2023, two years after the suspension.
The case was set to come up for hearing on October 6 before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers in Oakland, California, before the settlement was announced.
The YouTube deal follows other settlements Trump has reached with U.S. media organisations. In December 2024, ABC News paid $15 million over a defamation suit linked to anchor George Stephanopoulos. In July 2025, Paramount paid $16 million over a dispute involving CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
Alphabet, with a market value of nearly $3 trillion, is unlikely to feel the impact of the settlement, even though it adds to the growing list of multimillion-dollar deals connected to Trump’s legal battles.
