Elon Musk listens to U.S. President Donald Trump converse within the Oval Workplace of the White Home in Washington, D.C., U.S., Feb. 11, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Social media firm X has agreed to pay about $10 million to settle a lawsuit by President Donald Trump, who has put X’s billionaire proprietor Elon Musk accountable for a significant authorities cost- and staff-cutting effort, The Wall Avenue Journal reported Wednesday.
Trump had sued X, then generally known as Twitter, and its then-CEO Jack Dorsey in San Francisco federal court docket for deplatforming his account following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters. Twitter had cited the danger of Trump inciting additional violence associated to his effort to stay within the White Home following his loss to former President Joe Biden within the 2020 election.
Trump claimed Twitter had violated his First Modification proper to free speech.
John Kelly, one in every of Trump’s attorneys within the lawsuit, confirmed Wednesday that the president and X reached a settlement.
“It is resolved,” Kelly instructed CNBC. He mentioned he couldn’t affirm the main points of the settlement.
CNBC has requested remark from a lawyer for X.
On the time of the settlement, Trump had been ready for greater than a yr for the result of an enchantment of the dismissal of his lawsuit by a federal district court docket decide in 2022. On Monday, the ninth Circuit U.S. Courtroom of Appeals granted a movement by all events within the case to dismiss that enchantment.
Meta, the proprietor of Fb and Instagram, on Jan. 29 mentioned it might pay $25 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit over that firm’s resolution to droop Trump’s social media accounts after the Capitol riot.
The settlement with X comes as Tesla CEO Musk oversees the Trump administration’s wide-ranging effort to chop federal authorities spending and staffing ranges as the pinnacle of DOGE, or Division of Authorities Effectivity.
Musk, who spent greater than $250 million to assist Trump win election to a second time period within the White Home, bought Twitter in October 2022 for $44 billion.
Musk reinstated Trump’s X account in November 2022.
