struggling financially, the former president has turned a series of high-profile legal settlements into a massive source of income, dwarfing the $400,000 annual salary that U.S. presidents receive—a figure that has remained unchanged for the last two decades, according to CBS News.
Alongside this salary, presidents also receive a $50,000 non-taxable expense allowance, a $100,000 travel budget, and a $19,000 fund for entertainment, benefits that Trump has technically enjoyed but often downplays in public statements. In 2025, Trump’s legal victories against major corporations have captured widespread attention due to the sheer scale of the settlements. One of the most notable cases involved Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The lawsuit originated in 2021 after Trump’s social media accounts were suspended following the January 6 Capitol riots.
The bans were lifted in 2023, but the litigation continued, culminating in a $25 million settlement in Trump’s favor. Reports indicate that $22 million of this payout will be allocated toward his planned presidential library, expected to open in January 2029, underscoring how legal victories can directly fund projects closely tied to his legacy. YouTube followed with a settlement of $24.5 million in late September 2025. Like Meta, YouTube had suspended Trump’s channel due to concerns about potential incitement, prompting Trump to argue in court that the platform wielded an “unprecedented concentration of power” that threatened public discourse. Similarly, Twitter, now rebranded as X, settled for $10 million in February after Trump sued over his permanent account suspension in 2021, a move justified by the company at the time as a measure to reduce the risk of further incitement of violence.
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