YouTube’s settlement with Trump is helping pay for the White House demolition and ballroom
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- Alphabet contributed $22 million to Trump’s White House ballroom project.
- The contribution is part of a legal settlement after Trump’s YouTube suspension.
- The ballroom’s total cost is estimated at $250 million, with private funding sources.
Alphabet is helping pay for President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom, according to federal court filings.
As part of a legal settlement reached last month with Trump, Alphabet, which owns YouTube, is contributing $22 million toward Trump’s White House construction plans. Trump sued the tech giant after it suspended his YouTube channel for two years, following the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Images showing demolition work on the East Wing to make way for the ballroom have sparked scrutiny this week and renewed the question over who’s paying for the estimated $250 million, 90,000-square-foot addition.
According to court filings in Oakland, California, Alphabet’s contribution, which accounts for roughly 10% of the total projected cost, will be made on Trump’s behalf to the Trust for the National Mall, a nonprofit entity dedicated to restoring and preserving the National Mall.
“The White House Ballroom is being privately funded by many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly,” Trump said Monday on his social media platform Truth Social.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
This is a developing story.