Google Delivers $22 Million to Trump to Settle His Frivolous Lawsuit—Just Like Other Major Companies Afraid that He’ll Otherwise Use His Office to Retaliate Against Them

Sep 29, 2025

The signature form of corruption for Donald Trump’s return to office has been big corporations settling frivolous lawsuits they could easily win in court, as a transparent and obvious way of paying Trump a bribe. Paramount, Disney, and Meta have done it—and now Google has followed suit.

The New York Times reports:

YouTube agreed to pay a $24.5 million settlement to President Trump and others who were suspended by the video streaming platform in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to a legal document filed on Monday. …
The vast majority of YouTube’s settlement payment—$22 million—will go to Mr. Trump, according to the filing in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. He has directed that the money be contributed to the Trust for the National Mall and to the construction of a ballroom at the White House. …
“If he hadn’t been re-elected, we’d be in court forever,” said John Coale, a lawyer for Mr. Trump. “Then the president gets re-elected and things look a lot better.” …
Until recently, Mr. Trump’s lawsuits against the social media companies had largely stalled. A federal judge dismissed the case against Twitter in 2022, and judges had put the lawsuits against Meta and YouTube on ice. …
“The law was on their side,” said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, who said the settlements were akin to “buying influence.” The companies “do seem like they are currying favor with the presidential administration,” he added.

These are not settlements of lawsuits but rather payments of giant bribes to the sitting president. It somehow seems fitting that the money will go to build Trump a giant gilded ballroom, where he will gather with other wealthy businessmen in tuxedos to trade favors and solicit more bribes.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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