Media settlements
ABC, Meta, X, Paramount and YouTube settled lawsuits Trump brought against them, paying more than $90 million between December 2024 and September 2025 by the Los Angeles Times count. Most of it went to his future presidential library or his White House ballroom, and some went to his legal fees.
- Launched
- December 2024 (ABC settlement)
- Owned by
- Donald Trump, as plaintiff; the money went to his presidential library fund, the Trust for the National Mall and his lawyers
On Who He Hired: Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Brendan Carr
The money 8
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$15 million
Other money
ABC News’s payment to settle his defamation suit over George Stephanopoulos’s remarks, made to a “presidential foundation and museum”.
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$1 million
Other money
ABC News’s payment toward his legal fees in the same settlement.
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$22 million
Other money
Meta’s donation to his presidential library to settle his suit over his 2021 account suspension, part of a $25 million settlement agreed in January 2025.
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$3 million
Other money
Meta’s payment of legal fees in the same settlement, per a letter from Meta’s attorneys, as reported by ABC News.
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$10 million
Other money
About $10 million X agreed to pay in February 2025 to settle his suit over his 2021 account suspension, first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
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$16 million
Other money
Paramount’s payment to settle his “60 Minutes” suit, covering his legal fees, with the rest going to a future presidential library. Bloomberg didn’t report the split.
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$22 million
Other money
YouTube’s payment toward his White House ballroom, part of a $24.5 million settlement of his suit over his account suspension. The other $2.5 million went to co-plaintiffs.
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$90 million
Other money
The Los Angeles Times count of everything ABC, Meta, X, Paramount and YouTube paid to settle his suits, legal fees included: “more than $90 million.” It covers the payments above plus YouTube’s $2.5 million to co-plaintiffs.
What the labels mean
- ConvictedA criminal jury found them guilty, or they pleaded guilty and were sentenced.
- Found liableA civil jury ruled against them.
- Court ruledA judge ruled against them or their policy.
- Watchdog foundAn inspector general, a congressional investigation, Congress’s auditors at the GAO, or a regulator.
- AdmittedThey acknowledged it, or their own filings and records show it.
- On recordSomething they said or did in public.
- ReportedNews reporting they deny or haven’t confirmed.
- AllegedAccusations from lawsuits, complaints or unnamed sources that haven’t been proven.
Admitted or on record 4
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Admitted
ABC News paid $15 million toward Trump’s future presidential library and $1 million of his legal fees to settle his defamation suit.
Trump sued after George Stephanopoulos said on air, 10 times, that a jury had found Trump “raped” E. Jean Carroll; the jury had found him liable for sexual abuse. The judge in Carroll’s case later wrote that Trump had “raped” her in the broader sense of the word, as people generally understand it. The settlement was filed publicly on December 14, 2024, five weeks before his inauguration, and ABC agreed to add an editor’s note saying it regretted the statements. ABC said: “We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing.”
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Admitted
Meta paid $25 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit over his 2021 suspension, with the FTC’s antitrust trial against it set for that April.
Of the money, $22 million went to Trump’s presidential library and $3 million to legal fees. The Federal Trade Commission was suing to unwind Meta’s purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp, with trial set for April 14, 2025. In April 2025, Reuters, citing the Wall Street Journal, reported that Mark Zuckerberg was lobbying Trump to settle that case before trial. Meta confirmed the settlement but did not admit wrongdoing, and said of the lobbying report: “We regularly meet with policymakers to discuss issues impacting competitiveness, national security, and economic growth.”
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Admitted
Paramount paid $16 million to settle Trump’s “60 Minutes” lawsuit as its merger with Skydance awaited FCC approval.
The money covers Trump’s legal fees, with the rest going to a future presidential library. The settlement includes no apology, and “60 Minutes” agreed to release transcripts of its interviews with future presidential candidates. Trump had sought $20 billion. Less than a month later, the FCC under Brendan Carr approved Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount, which owns CBS. Co-CEO George Cheeks said Paramount settled to avoid “high, unpredictable legal costs and disruption to the business.” The settlement and the merger were formally unrelated, and CBS had called the suit “without merit.”
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Admitted
YouTube agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle Trump’s suspension lawsuit, with $22 million going toward his White House ballroom.
The $22 million goes to the Trust for the National Mall, a nonprofit, on Trump’s behalf to fund the ballroom. The other $2.5 million goes to his co-plaintiffs, including the American Conservative Union and writer Naomi Wolf. A Google spokesperson referred questions to the notice of settlement, which says it “shall not constitute an admission of liability or fault on the part of the Defendants.” The company did not agree to any policy or product changes.
Reported and alleged 2
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Reported
X, owned by Elon Musk, agreed in February 2025 to pay about $10 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit over his account suspension.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the amount. Lawmakers said in March 2026 that the money went into Trump’s library fund. Musk said he “left it up to the lawyers,” and Trump called the amount “very low” in a Fox News interview.
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Reported
Florida dissolved the Trump library fund that took in settlement money after the fund missed an annual report, and three members of Congress asked the companies where up to $63 million went.
Florida’s Department of State administratively dissolved the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Fund on September 26, 2025, after it failed to file an annual report. Three months later, the lawyer who had incorporated the fund filed articles of dissolution, Raw Story reported. In March 2026, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Melanie Stansbury wrote to ABC, Meta, X and Paramount asking where their payments went. A separate Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, Inc. has reported $50 million in contributions without saying whether that includes the settlements. Press representatives for ABC, Meta, Paramount and X, and the foundation’s trustee, declined to comment on the status of the payments.