Business
Six surprising ways US President Donald Trump made money in 2025
Trump’s various lawsuits against media companies netted him $86.5m last year.
The largest payout came from Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram. The filing shows that the company gave the president $24.5m to settle a lawsuit over Trump’s accounts being suspended in the wake of the riots in the Washington DC on 6 January 2021.
Suits against Paramount, owner of the CBS news channel, and ABC News resulted in payouts of $16m apiece.
According to the disclosure, the net proceeds of the lawsuits will go to the Trump presidential library.
Trump also received $22m from YouTube to settle a case he brought over his account being suspended on that platform after the riots in 2021.
That money will be given to the trust that manages the National Mall in DC.
There was payment of $8m to Trump from Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter – now called X after being bought by Elon Musk – after the president was banned from the platform after the riots.
The documents do not say what that money will be used for.
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