YouTube Settles Lawsuit for $24.5 Million Over Trump Account Ban — Here’s Why

YouTube's San Bruno, CA headquarters (April 2025): Company settles pre-re-election lawsuit from President Trump.

Josh Edelson/AFP for Getty Images

Washington, D.C. – 29 September 2025 - In a significant victory for President Donald Trump, YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a long-running lawsuit over the platform's suspension of his account in the wake of the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack, marking another major payout from Big Tech to the commander-in-chief amid his second term.

The settlement, filed Monday in federal court in Oakland, California, resolves claims Trump first brought in July 2021 against Alphabet Inc., YouTube's parent company, alleging unconstitutional censorship of conservative voices.Of the total amount, $22 million will fund the Trust for the National Mall, a nonprofit spearheading a $200 million White House ballroom construction project, while the remainder supports other plaintiffs, including the American Conservative Union.

Trump's official YouTube channel was indefinitely suspended on January 12, 2021—just six days after his supporters stormed the Capitol to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden's 2020 election victory—citing violations of the platform's policies against content that could incite violence.The move barred him from uploading videos during a critical period, which Trump decried as election interference, filing similar suits against Twitter (now X) and Meta Platforms Inc., the owner of Facebook and Instagram.

The channel was reinstated in March 2023, ahead of Trump's 2024 presidential bid, with YouTube stating it aimed to ensure voters could hear from "major national candidates." Upon reactivation, Trump celebrated with a triumphant video post captioned "I’M BACK!"—a moment his allies hailed as a turning point in his digital comeback.

Trump's attorney John Coale, a longtime ally who spearheaded the litigation, credited the president's November 2024 re-election as pivotal to the swift resolution. "If he had not been re-elected, we would have been in court for 1,000 years," Coale told reporters, underscoring how Trump's return to the White House shifted the dynamics with tech giants. This follows a $25 million settlement from Meta earlier this year over similar bans on Trump's accounts, part of a broader wave of reconciliations as Silicon Valley warms to the administration.

Neither Alphabet nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment on the deal. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, who hosted a reception for conservative creators at Trump's January inauguration, has publicly distanced the platform from its Biden-era moderation stance, reinstating accounts previously banned for COVID-19 misinformation and 2020 election denialism—moves attributed to pressure from the prior administration.

Legal observers view the payout as a pragmatic retreat by Big Tech, wary of regulatory scrutiny under Trump's FTC appointees and potential reforms to Section 230, the law shielding platforms from liability for user content. "This isn't an admission of wrongdoing—it's business insurance," said tech policy expert Cindy Cohn of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, noting the settlement avoids a trial that could set precedents on political speech.

The resolution caps a saga that began amid the post-January 6 crackdown, when platforms like YouTube enforced stricter rules on inflammatory rhetoric. Trump's suits argued these actions violated his First Amendment rights and amounted to monopolistic suppression, amassing over 100 pages of filings that painted the tech industry as biased against the right.

In the current political climate, with Trump touting tech donations to his inauguration fund—totaling millions from executives like Meta's Mark Zuckerberg—the settlements signal a détente.Conservative influencers, key to mobilizing young male voters in 2024, now flourish on YouTube, where election denial content garners billions of views unchecked.

As the dust settles on this chapter, questions linger about content moderation's future: Will platforms prioritize profits over principles, or does this embolden further challenges to online gatekeepers? For Trump, the windfall—earmarked for national landmarks—bolsters his narrative of vindication against "the swamp," including Big Tech.