Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk together with his son X Æ A-Xii and President Trump within the Oval Workplace on Feb. 11, 2025. Musk has been tapped by President Donald Trump to guide federal cost-cutting efforts.
Jim Watson/AFP by way of Getty Photos
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Jim Watson/AFP by way of Getty Photos
President Trump mentioned Elon Musk paying $10 million to settle a lawsuit the president introduced towards the social media web site Musk now owns was “an enormous low cost.”
Chatting with Fox Information host Sean Hannity in a pre-taped interview on Tuesday evening, Trump mentioned he hoped for a bigger payout.
“It’s extremely low. I used to be seeking to get far more cash than that,” mentioned Trump, sitting proper subsequent to Musk as he made the feedback.
Musk, who had a contorted expression of bewilderment when Hannity requested the query, mentioned in response: “I left it as much as the attorneys and the crew operating Twitter.”
Twitter, now X, banned Trump days after the Jan. 6 riots on the Capitol, citing the potential of additional increments of violence. And Trump responded by suing the platform for alleged censorship.
These authorized arguments had been shedding in courtroom. A U.S. District Decide in California tossed the case, ruling that solely governments, not personal corporations, can violate somebody’s First Modification rights. Trump’s authorized crew appealed to a federal appeals courtroom, which additionally appeared skeptical of Trump’s allegations.
However Trump’s attorneys stored preventing to maintain the swimsuit alive nicely after billionaire Elon Musk purchased Twitter in 2022 and drew more and more nearer to Trump’s orbit over the subsequent two years, culminating in Musk changing into the one largest donor to Trump’s profitable marketing campaign final November.
Regardless of working collectively within the White Home, Musk’s attorneys negotiated a $10 million to Trump to finish the pending litigation. Earlier this month, Musk’s attorneys wrote in a courtroom submitting that the swimsuit can be voluntarily dismissed. The Wall Avenue Journal first reported on the payout.
It is the second tech firm fee to Trump over him being booted from social media websites. Final month, Meta agreed to fork up $25 million to resolve litigation over Trump’s suspension from Meta’s Fb and Instagram.
Trump additionally sued Google for banning him from YouTube, however that case continues to be pending.
The settlement between Musk’s X and Trump, which the president mentioned on Tuesday, is placing, given Musk’s position as a prime official within the White Home.
Musk, who had been main an effort often known as the Division of Authorities Effectivity, has been given broad powers by Trump to shrink the scale of the federal authorities by aggressively chopping prices and, in some instances, making an attempt to dismantle complete companies, spurring a slew of authorized challenges over the bounds of govt authority.
X didn’t reply to NPR’s request for remark.
Shortly after Musk bought Twitter in October 2022, he reinstated Trump’s account.
The identical yr, U.S. District Decide James Donato threw out Trump’s free speech case towards Twitter.
“The amended grievance merely presents a grab-bag of allegations to the impact that some Democratic members of Congress needed Mr. Trump, and ‘the views he espoused,’ to be banned from Twitter as a result of such ‘content material and views’ had been ‘opposite to these legislators’ most popular factors of view,'” Donato wrote in his ruling. “However the feedback of a handful of elected officers are a far cry from a ‘rule of resolution for which the State is accountable.’ Legislators are completely free to precise opinions with out being deemed the official voice of ‘the State.'”
