Elon Musk to Settle Trump Ban Lawsuit Against X for $10 Million | Report

Elon Musk’s X will pay President Donald Trump about $10 million to settle a lawsuit he filed against the platform for banning him after the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The settlement comes only a few weeks after Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, agreed to pay Trump $25 million for “indefinitely” banning him in 2021. At the time of the ban, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said “the risks” of keeping the president on Facebook and Instagram were “simply too great.”

X, when it was run by former CEO Jack Dorsey and known as Twitter, shared similar reasoning for banning the sitting president, saying his account was removed “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”

X did not immediately respond Wednesday to TheWrap’s request for comment.

Musk, who put more than $250 million into helping the president and other Republicans win their elections last November, reinstated Trump’s X account shortly after he bought the platform in October 2022. Meta followed suit the next year and lifted its indefinite ban.

The WSJ reported that “Trump’s team considered letting the lawsuit fizzle out, according to some people familiar with the matter, citing Musk’s proximity to the president” and the financial backing the Tesla boss provided leading up to the 2024 election. Despite their close relationship, Trump decided to move forward with the lawsuit.

Musk has been a key member of Trump’s second administration to this point. The president put him in charge of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and Musk and his team have been on a cost-cutting spree that aims to trim the federal bureaucracy. Musk recently said he is aiming to cut $1–$2 trillion in annual spending — a goal that represents up to 30% of what the government shelled out in 2024.

Among the federal contracts being slashed by DOGE is the $8.2 million Politico has been paid for government subscriptions. On Tuesday, Musk (and his son X Æ A-Xii) joined Trump in the Oval Office to talk to reporters about DOGE’s cuts.

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