Trump Settles Lawsuit with Meta in $25M Agreement

U.S. President Donald Trump has reached a legal settlement with Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, in a case over his account suspensions following the January 6 Capitol riots. Under the agreement, Meta will pay approximately $25 million, though it does not admit any wrongdoing.

Trump filed the lawsuit in 2021 after Meta suspended his accounts for at least two years. The restrictions were fully lifted in July 2024, ahead of the U.S. presidential elections.

According to reports by The Wall Street Journal, around $22 million of the settlement will go toward funding Trump’s presidential library, while the remaining amount will cover legal costs and compensate other plaintiffs involved in the lawsuit.

Relations between Trump and Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, appear to have improved in recent months. After Trump’s election victory in November, Zuckerberg visited his Mar-a-Lago resort. In December, Meta donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund, and Zuckerberg attended the inauguration earlier this month alongside other tech billionaires.

Trump had previously been highly critical of Zuckerberg and Facebook, calling the platform “anti-Trump” in 2017 and later branding it an “enemy of the people” in March 2024.

Meanwhile, Twitter now named X and owned by Trump ally Elon Musk permanently banned Trump in 2021 but reinstated his account in 2022 after Musk conducted a public poll supporting his return.