President Donald Trump took a victory lap after his latest shakedown of a big tech company, sharing a meme showing an embarrassed YouTube exec handing over a giant-size check for $24.5 million to the president.
On Monday, a court filing revealed that Alphabet, YouTube’s parent company, agreed to pay a total of $24.5 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit alleging “censorship” over YouTube’s suspension of his channel following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. YouTube had determined he violated the site’s policy against inciting violence.
The image Trump posted Monday evening shows a sheepish-looking man wearing a gray hoodie (perhaps meant to be YouTube CEO Neal Mohan) holding a check made out to “Donald J. Trump” for $24.5 million with a memo line that says “Settlement for Wrongful Suspension.” Trump is shown holding the other side of the novelty check, grinning and giving a thumbs-up.
The text reads, “YouTube SURRENDERS! Pays President Trump $24.5 MILLION for illegal ban! This MASSIVE victory proves Big Tech censorship has consequences. Every shadowbanned patriot deserves justice!” It continues, “Trump fought for free speech and WON! Repost if ALL banned conservatives should be paid!”
Here’s the post, shared at 11:46 p.m. ET on Trump’s Truth Social account:
Under the settlement, YouTube, Google and Alphabet did not admit any wrongdoing nor did they agree to make any policy or product changes.
Of the $24.5 million total, Alphabet will pay $22 million to Trump, who designated that the funds go to the Trust for the National Mall and toward the construction of the White House ballroom.
Trump formed Trump Media & Technology Group, which operates Truth Social, after he was banned or suspended from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and other major internet platforms in the wake of the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which aimed to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
In July 2021, Trump sued Meta (then called Facebook), Twitter and Google over their suspension of his accounts on their platforms, alleging those were “unconstitutional” actions violating his free-speech rights. However, that’s a misreading of the First Amendment, which prohibits government restrictions on free speech and does not apply to private companies.
In January 2025, Meta agreed to pay $25 million to settle Trump‘s lawsuit. The following month, Twitter, now controlled by billionaire Elon Musk and called X, paid Trump about $10 million.
YouTube in March 2023 lifted its suspension on Trump, saying it weighed risks of violence with letting voters “hear equally from major national candidates.” That came after Meta said it was reinstating Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts with “new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses.” Musk reinstated Trump’s account on Twitter/X in November 2022.
