Big Tech just wrote another check. Google’s YouTube quietly agreed to a $24.5 million settlement to resolve President Trump’s lawsuit over the platform’s 2021 suspension of his account, with $22 million earmarked for the Trust for the National Mall to support construction of the new White House State Ballroom. The settlement closes the final chapter in a long-running fight between conservative voices and the tech oligarchy that tried to silence them.
This wasn’t an isolated spat — it was the predictable outcome of a pattern of censorship. Trump sued several platforms after January 6, 2021, and Meta and X already cut deals this year, with Meta paying $25 million and X $10 million, making YouTube the last of the big three to come to the table. The math is undeniable: when conservatives stand firm, the tech monopolies fold and open their wallets.
For months the left lectured America about responsibility while these companies exercised raw, unchecked political power. Yet after a change in political winds and public pressure, those same platforms quietly reversed course — Trump’s YouTube account was reinstated in 2023 and now Google has chosen to settle rather than carry the baggage of a public showdown. It’s proof that their power is less permanent than they pretend when patriots don’t back down.
Make no mistake, corporate executives rationed speech for political convenience and then tried to sanitize their actions with legal rationales. Legal scholars warned the suits would struggle under current First Amendment doctrine and Section 230 protections, yet the tech titans still paid up, not out of principle but to quiet controversy and curry favor. That pattern should unsettle every American who cares about equal treatment under the law.
The settlement spells out where the money will go: $22 million to the Trust for the National Mall, which the White House says will help fund the estimated $200 million State Ballroom project, while $2.5 million will be distributed among other plaintiffs and conservative groups. Call it what it is — the people who tried to censor conservative voices are now underwriting a monument to American history and unity, whether they intended to or not.
Americans should welcome accountability, but not pretend this fixes the root problem. Section 230 and the unchecked discretion of platform arbiters remain an affront to free expression; Congress and state lawmakers should act to ensure tech companies cannot operate as political gatekeepers. The real victory here is the reminder that free people can, and must, push back against corporate overreach.
This settlement is a warning shot and a small victory rolled into one — a win for free speech, a rebuke to censorious elites, and a signal that conservative resolve matters. Work, faith, and patriotism built this country, and we will not cede the public square to Silicon Valley mandarins who think they know better than the American people. Stay vigilant, keep fighting, and never mistake temporary settlements for permanent liberty.
