Trump Sued YouTube in 2021 After the Platform Decided to Suspend His Account

Although he loses plenty of lawsuits, President Trump's decisions to launch lawsuits against major corporations have tended to be pretty lucrative. He's received settlements from companies like ABC and Paramount, and now, CNBC is reporting that YouTube has also agreed to a settlement for $24.5 million with the president.

Following the news that Trump had received another settlement, many wanted to understand why he sued the company in the first place. Here's what we know.

Per CNBC, Trump's decision to sue YouTube came after the video platform suspended his account in the aftermath of the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. At the time, YouTube, as well as platforms like Twitter and Facebook, were concerned about the president's potential to incite violence. This settlement “shall not constitute an admission of liability or fault," according to a filing from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

YouTube is just the latest company to settle with the administration since Trump retook office in January of 2025. Meta announced that it would be settling with the administration for $25 million in January, per NPR, and shortly thereafter, Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter) announced that it would be settling for $10 million. YouTube was one of the last holdouts, and ultimately paid up in roughly the same amount as Meta.

This comes a month after several Democratic senators sent a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, saying that they were concerned about the potential of a settlement with the administration, per CNBC.

Specifically, they said they were worried it could be a “quid-pro-quo arrangement to avoid full accountability for violating federal competition, consumer protection, and labor laws, circumstances that could result in the company running afoul of federal bribery laws.”

These settlements are just one small part of a broader picture of how President Trump and his family have profited since he retook office. Trump's sons have launched several crypto ventures that now reportedly make up roughly half of their net worth, and estimates suggest that Trump's personal net worth has doubled since he took office, per Forbes, a remarkable turn of events that occurred in less than a year.

In addition to personal enrichment, though, Trump likely feels that these companies genuinely wronged him, and he is now wielding the power of the presidency to make capitulation to him seem like the most palatable option. It's noteworthy, though, that he has continued to come after some of the companies that capitulated to him early (Disney and ABC being a great example).

Google is one of the biggest companies in the United States, and has some real power to stand up to the president. What remains more uncertain, though, is whether they will choose to use any of that leverage or whether this settlement is the first step in a broader series of steps to comply with the current administration.