President Donald Trump just scored a sizeable chunk of change from Meta Platforms after the company agreed to pay a $25 million settlement related to a 2021 lawsuit over the suspension of the president’s Facebook account.
The Wall Street Journal reported that $22 million of the settlement will fund Trump’s presidential library. The rest will be allocated to legal fees and the other plaintiffs who filed suit against Meta.
This development comes after Meta suspended Trump’s Facebook account after the January 6, 2021, riot at the United States Capitol building. Several other social media companies, including Twitter, also nuked the president’s account to silence him.
Meta announced in 2023 that Trump’s account had been reinstated after two years. X owner Elon Musk restored the president’s account after buying Twitter.
Breaking News: Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram access will be reinstated in the coming weeks, ending a two-year ban, Meta said.https://t.co/RRfYEQlkAf
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 25, 2023
Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been cozying up to President Trump over recent months. He traveled to Mar-a-Lago in November to meet with the president to mend fences. Trump indicated during their conversation that the lawsuit would have to be resolved before the CEO could be “brought into the tent,” a source told The Wall Street Journal.
Zuckerberg, along with several other Big Tech leaders, donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), in a post on X, took issue with the amount of wampum Meta Platforms is paying to Trump. “It looks like a bribe and a signal to every company that corruption is the name of the game,” Pocahontas Sen. Warren wrote. “After Meta pays to play, what does Mark Zuckerberg expect as a return on this investment?”
It looks like a bribe and a signal to every company that corruption is the name of the game.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) January 30, 2025
After Meta pays to play, what does Mark Zuckerberg expect as a return on this investment? https://t.co/BhioEb8P03
Warren, the first fake Native American to serve in the Senate, has been less than thrilled with the idea of Big Tech companies having a warm and fuzzy relationship with Trump. She joined with Sen. Michael Bennett (D-CO) to send a letter to the leaders of several Big Tech companies questioning their decision to donate millions of dollars to the president’s inaugural fund.
The letter noted, "In the two months since the election, Big Tech Companies…have made million-dollar gifts to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund in what appears to be an effort to influence and sway the actions and policies of the incoming administration.”
The lawmakers further stated that they are “concerned that your company and other Big Tech donors are using your massive contributions to the inaugural fund to cozy up to the incoming Trump administration in an effort to avoid scrutiny, limit regulation, and buy favor.”
Yet, it appears Warren and Bennett were not quite being honest about their “concerns.” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who also received a letter, posted it on X, noting that “they never sent me one of these for contributing to democrats.”
I wonder why?