Musk and X to pay Trump $10 million to settle Jan. 6 lawsuit : NPR

President Trump stated Elon Musk paying $10 million to settle a lawsuit the president introduced in opposition to the social media web site Musk now owns was “an enormous low cost.”

Talking to Fox Information host Sean Hannity in a pre-taped interview on Tuesday night time, Trump stated he hoped for a bigger payout.

“It’s extremely low. I used to be seeking to get far more cash than that,” stated Trump, sitting proper subsequent to Musk as he made the feedback.

Musk, who had a contorted expression of bewilderment when Hannity requested the query, stated in response: “I left it as much as the attorneys and the group 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 Choose in California tossed the case, ruling that solely governments, not non-public firms, can violate somebody’s First Modification rights. Trump’s authorized group appealed to a federal appeals courtroom, which additionally appeared skeptical of Trump’s allegations.

However Trump’s attorneys saved combating to maintain the swimsuit alive effectively after billionaire Elon Musk purchased Twitter in 2022 and drew more and more nearer to Trump’s orbit over the following two years, culminating in Musk changing into the one greatest 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 Road Journal first reported on the payout.

It is the second tech firm cost 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 called the Division of Authorities Effectivity, has been given broad powers by Trump to shrink the dimensions of the federal authorities by aggressively slicing prices and, in some circumstances, making an attempt to dismantle whole companies, spurring a slew of authorized challenges over the boundaries of government 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 Choose James Donato threw out Trump’s free speech case in opposition to Twitter.

“The amended grievance merely provides a grab-bag of allegations to the impact that some Democratic members of Congress wished 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 specific opinions with out being deemed the official voice of ‘the State.'”