X reaches $10 million settlement with Trump over prior suspension of his Twitter account

The social media platform X will pay President Trump $10 million to settle a lawsuit over the nearly two-year-long suspension of his account in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, a person familiar with the matter told CBS News Wednesday.

The White House declined to comment when reached by CBS News.

X, then known as Twitter, banned Mr. Trump from the platform in January 2021, two days after the Capitol riots. At the time, Twitter said the permanent suspension was “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”

In July 2021, Mr. Trump sued Twitter, claiming the suspension violated his First Amendment right to free speech. In May 2022, a U.S. district judge dismissed the lawsuit. However, Mr. Trump’s lawyers had appealed that ruling and it was still pending as of this week, according to the Wall Street Journal, which was first to report the settlement.  

In November 2022, about a month after billionaire Elon Musk purchased Twitter — which he later renamed X — he reinstated Mr. Trump’s account.

Musk now heads up the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency as a special government employee who reports directly to Mr. Trump, and was a key financial supporter of Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign.

Late last month, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, paid $25 million to Mr. Trump to settle a 2021 lawsuit over its own suspension of his accounts following the Capitol attack. His Facebook and Twitter accounts were reinstated in 2023.