The long-running battle between Donald Trump and Silicon Valley over his 2021 deplatforming has come to a dramatic close — with YouTube now agreeing to a $24.5 million settlement that caps the president’s legal war with Big Tech.
According to court filings, the lion’s share of the settlement — $22 million — will be funneled into the Trust for the National Mall, earmarked for the construction of a new White House State Ballroom.
The remaining $2.5 million will be divided among co-plaintiffs in the case, including the American Conservative Union. CNN and The Wall Street Journal both confirmed the unusual arrangement, which reflects Trump’s knack for turning courtroom victories into legacy-building projects.
YouTube, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, suspended Trump’s channel in the aftermath of January 6, 2021, citing alleged violations of its “incitement to violence” policies. Trump’s account was reinstated two years later, but the lawsuit carried on — one of three parallel legal showdowns the president waged against tech titans who sought to silence him.
Earlier this year, Meta settled a similar case for $25 million, with most of the funds supporting Trump’s presidential library in Miami. In February, X (formerly Twitter) agreed to a $10 million settlement, shortly after Elon Musk restored Trump’s account in 2022.
All three victories were shepherded by Trump attorney John Coale, who credited the president’s second term in office with breaking Big Tech’s resistance. “If he had not been re-elected, we would have been in court for 1,000 years,” Coale told The Wall Street Journal. “It was his re-election that made the difference.”
The symbolism of these settlements cannot be overstated. Trump not only forced Silicon Valley’s most powerful platforms into payouts but also turned their penalties into monuments to his political and cultural staying power.
The White House will get a grand ballroom. Miami will get a presidential library. And Trump, once digitally erased, now sits with reinstated accounts and new leverage over the very companies that tried to bury him.
Adding a final flourish to the spectacle, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, and Musk himself all had front-row seats at Trump’s second inauguration — a tableau unthinkable just a few years ago when those same executives presided over his digital exile.
