And then there were none.
YouTube, a Google subsidiary, became the last of three tech titans to settle a lawsuit brought forth by President Donald Trump, according to a blistering report from The Wall Street Journal.
The video sharing platform agreed to pay a hefty $24.5 million to settle lawsuits brought forth by Trump in 2021.
At the time, the president’s YouTube account had been banned following the Jan. 6 incursion at the U.S. Capitol.
YouTube claimed that they had gone to those extraordinary lengths to remove Trump’s channel to nix potential videos that may incite violence.
(The channel was reinstated in March 2023.)
The YouTube settlement is the second-biggest of the lawsuits brought against various tech titans by Trump — and that appears to be intentional.
The biggest settlement Trump had was with Facebook parent company Meta Platforms, which was for $25 million.
“Google executives were eager to keep their settlement smaller than the one paid by rival Meta, according to people familiar with the matter,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
While $24.5 million does come in lower than the $25 million Meta paid, it’s more than double what X, formerly Twitter, paid Trump for a similar lawsuit, as the now-Elon Musk owned platform paid $10 million.
Interestingly, while Trump will “keep” most of this settlement money — $22 million — none of it will actually be going to him.
The Wall Street Journal noted that the money will be immediately rerouted to the nonprofit Trust for the National Mall, tasked with building a grand ballroom near the White House.
The other $2.5 million will be dispersed among various other plaintiffs. There is no mention of attorney fees.
This decision comes months after YouTube was apparently having “productive conversations” with the Trump administration in June, per The Hill.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
