Start shining the dance floor …
YouTube on Monday agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by President Trump, and the bulk of the money will go toward the construction of the new White House ballroom.
Trump sued the Alphabet-owned video sharing platform in July 2021, alleging that YouTube unlawfully silenced conservative viewpoints after the company suspended his account in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.
The Trust for the National Mall, the nonprofit group raising private donations to build the $200 million ballroom on the White House grounds, will be paid $22 million by the tech company as part of the settlement.
The remainder of the settlement money will go to other plaintiffs in the case, including the American Conservative Union.
Trump announced plans for the privately-funded, 90,000-square-foot “White House State Ballroom,” in July.
The ballroom will be situated in the East Wing and be able to fit 650 people.
Construction is expected to be completed before Trump’s term ends in early 2029.
YouTube was the last of the major social media companies sued by Trump over Capitol riot-related bans to settle.
Meta and X settled similar lawsuits brought by the president earlier this year, to the tune of $25 million and $10 million, respectively.
Trump was banned from YouTube for nearly two years in the aftermath of the riot.
The video streaming service suspended Trump’s account on Jan. 12, 2021, and reinstated it on March 17, 2023 – several months after he launched his 2024 presidential campaign.
“We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, balancing that with the importance of preserving the opportunity for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run-up to an election,” YouTube’s vice president of public policy Leslie Miller said in a statement at the time.
YouTube did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment on the settlement.
John Coale, Trump’s personal attorney, told The Post that the president insisted on the settlement money going toward the construction of the ballroom, which the tech company had no problem with.
“He wanted it. They said, ‘Great.’ So everybody was happy with that,” Coale said.
“[Trump’s] election had a lot to do with it,” the attorney said of the settlements with Google, Meta and X finally being reached, after years of litigation.
Coale noted that as the lawsuits played out, “some good headway” was made with the tech companies about “changing their behavior.”He pointed to Google signaling last week that it would reinstate YouTube accounts banned during the Biden administration over COVID-19 “misinformation.”
This story originally appeared on NYPost
