Rebecca Ballhaus
Appearances
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
Well, we know that Paramount executives have discussed settling a lawsuit that Trump brought against CBS over an interview that they had with former Vice President Kamala Harris. I think it's fair to say that this is unlikely to be the last, or we certainly know that the Trump lawyers are probably going to go after more settlements in any case they can.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
I think it shows just how far Zuckerberg and likely some of these other CEOs are willing to go to make inroads with this administration and with Trump.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
They're sitting on the patio at Mar-a-Lago. So, you know, other diners can see them. That was a big theme of that whole, you know, post-election, pre-inauguration period was that guests at Mar-a-Lago were just sort of seeing who the president was meeting with on any given night.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
Zuckerberg at the time said that the risks of Trump using the social media platforms during that period were simply too great. But the idea was just that, you know, they were trying to sort of quiet things down and ease these tensions that had flared on January 6th. And they felt that Trump was continuing to contribute to fanning those flames.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
He's, you know, in a very low point by all accounts. His political future is very uncertain. And he's, you know, raging about he's gone through this second impeachment. He's facing all these new investigations, including into his role on January 6th. He's extremely frustrated.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
And so he files these three lawsuits against Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter for suspending his accounts after the January 6th riots.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
He's essentially accusing Meta and these other social media platforms of censoring him. And he actually has a couple of other plaintiffs sign on to these lawsuits. And these are people who have also had their accounts suspended or their posts, you know, have content warnings added or things like that. So the gist of it is that he's saying, you're silencing me.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
Right. You're depriving me of my right to free speech.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
The way it's been described to us is that really this was a way to sort of give Trump something to focus on that would be more on the offensive. We spoke to one of his lawyers who told him that we have to find a way to change your posture, to put you on the attack.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
And in some ways, it sounds like these lawsuits were a way to kind of cheer Trump up and give him something to focus on that wasn't just all these investigations into his behavior as president.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
So at the time, I think it was just those three. But certainly in the years since then, he's filed a number of lawsuits. He sued Bob Woodward and Simon & Schuster for publishing tapes of interviews with him. Just recently, he sued the Iowa pollster who predicted that Iowa would go blue in the election. So, you know, he's long been a very prolific filer of lawsuits.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
So they're sitting on this patio, and it's a pretty small group. And, you know, by all accounts, the dinner went well. I think it went remarkably well, given that just a couple months earlier, Trump had been tweeting about how Zuckerberg should maybe go to prison. But at the end of the dinner, Trump brings up this issue of the lawsuit that he had filed against Meta in 2021.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
They sought to have it dismissed. And in 2022, they have a bit of a win because the parallel lawsuit that Trump had filed against Twitter gets dismissed by a judge.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
What happens next is sort of a domino effect where a federal judge then stays the Facebook case pending the outcome of Trump's appeal of the Twitter case. And a similar thing happens with his lawsuit against YouTube, too. So at that point, it kind of looks like there's not going to be too much activity here. These lawsuits could really peter out.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
But in the fall of 2023, Trump's lawyers try and revive the Mehta lawsuit, and they ask the judge to lift the stay in the case and say that new evidence has come to light and they'd like to file a second amended complaint.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
So the judge definitely appears skeptical of their arguments. And, you know, their arguments are that there has been this chilling effect on Trump and on the other plaintiffs from Facebook's alleged censorship of the president and suspension of his account. The way his lawyer describes it in that conference is that once you're restored, you have to watch your step.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
You're sort of whistling in the dark every time you use Facebook. And the judge seems pretty skeptical of that account. He describes Trump as vigorous as a person as could possibly exist and says the idea that he would be afraid of his shadow or experiencing any kind of chilling effect sort of strains the imagination.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
So, you know, he says they can consider pursuing a second complaint if they want to, but he indicates that he is skeptical of the overall argument.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
There were a number of policy issues that were top of mind for Meta executives at the time. Like what? I can't say which of these issues were specifically discussed, but there's a lot of things that Meta cares about right now that the administration is doing. There's the TikTok ban. You know, whether TikTok is ultimately banned in the U.S. will have...
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
enormous ratifications for MEDA and its very similar product on Instagram. They're facing a number of antitrust cases. And I think overall, they're hoping that the disposition of this administration will be more tech friendly than what they viewed the Biden administration as being. They really had a hard time with the Biden White House.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
And the signal that he's sending is this is something we need to resolve before this friendship that you're seeking can really move forward.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
And so I think they really wanted to sort of reset relationships with the government.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
So ABC last year settled this defamation lawsuit that Trump had brought against the network for $15 million. And that number and the fact that they settled, I think, really stuns legal experts who worry about the precedent that this sets. For, you know, Trump loves to say he'll sue media companies. He sometimes follows through.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
And I think legal experts say that having this precedent of he can get $15 million out of a lawsuit is only going to sort of encourage that and could possibly have alarming consequences.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
No, I don't know. And what's also pretty interesting is that Trump's lawyers seem to have taken a lesson from the ABC settlement. And we found actually a letter that they filed in another case, the lawsuit that Trump had filed against Bob Woodward and his publisher, where his lawyers attached a copy of the ABC settlement. and essentially said, you should think about following ABC's lead.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
So it's clear that these are not accidents. This is a deliberate approach that Trump's lawyers are taking in this moment where they feel like there's going to be more opportunity here.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
And it's this pretty wild scene that was described to us where he's sitting there for a full day of mediation with Trump's lawyers. But Trump is sort of in and out of the room. We know that he leaves at some point to go get sentenced in the hush money case in New York, which he appears for virtually.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
He also comes back into the room at some point in full golf attire and a hat and says that he's just played a round of golf. So, you know, I don't think it's a stretch to say that Trump is likely enjoying this dynamic of, we know he's loving having all these CEOs come down to Mar-a-Lago to meet with him after sort of shunning him for many years.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
Well, I mean, it's hard to say. It's hardly like this case was on the brink of going to court when they settled it. There had really been nothing happening since that fall meeting with the judge.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
Democrats on the Hill and Trump's critics are saying, you know, that this is essentially a bribe, that this is a settlement they didn't need to pay and that they're paying to get in with Trump. Senator Warren said it looks like a bribe and a signal to every company that corruption is the name of the game.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
Meta has said nothing so far. They confirmed the reporting. Mark Zuckerberg, in the earnings call that Meta had on Wednesday, talked about trying to reset government relations.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
Well, I think if you go back to what a source told us was the message Trump was conveying, which is that if we're going to have this friendship going forward, if you want to be brought into the tent, we need to resolve this matter. I think it's hard to imagine that Meta didn't feel like we've gone to all this effort to try and rebuild relationships here.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
I think just the fact that Zuckerberg is settling a case from four years ago, that when Trump first filed these lawsuits, they were described by legal experts as pretty frivolous, that he's now settling it, let alone for $25 million, is pretty remarkable.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
how can we now let this lawsuit get in the way of all the work that we've put into this? They had donated to the inauguration. They threw this party for the inauguration. They've made these trips down to Mar-a-Lago. You know, Zuckerberg had even hired someone back in 2021 to try and improve his relationships with Republicans overall. So this has been a years-long effort to try and
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
reset relationships here. And I think they must have felt like we can't let this lawsuit ruin it all.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
I think that both of those industries feel like... they have some ground to make up, I would say. Certainly, it's not helpful to be in an active litigation with the current administration. I think for tech, you know, Zuckerberg has long been a target of Trump's, and they have a very complicated history.
The Journal.
Meta Settles With Trump for $25 Million
So there's a long saga there of the two, or at least Trump targeting Zuckerberg, that I think he's eager to sort of wipe away as much of that back history as possible.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
And he felt they got very little credit for it. And the implication was, you know, we're not going to try and necessarily abide by these norms this time around.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
I mean, I think it's important to note that the president is just not bound by the same conflict of interest rules as the rest of the federal government is. He doesn't have to abide by these laws that dictate that you have to avoid participating in something that you have a personal stake in. I didn't realize that.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
Yeah, the president does not have the same requirements of what they have to avoid in terms of conflict. But most presidents other than Trump have sort of taken that very seriously nonetheless. They typically place their assets in a blind trust. They avoid striking new deals while in office.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
But Trump instead has transferred his assets to the control of his children who have continued to pursue these deals.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
I mean, a number of these... deals so far have the potential to have an overlap with the administration's work you know these a settlement with meta which is you know actively seeking a lot from this administration um and whose ceo you know is meeting with trump in the white house there is certainly the potential for overlap there or the expectation of overlap there
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
I think this just sort of takes it one step further, where you're pursuing a business deal with a convicted business venture, with a founder who has pleaded guilty just a little over a year ago, who at the same time is looking for a pardon for those charges. I just think that that's sort of the most acute intertwining of these things that we've seen so far.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
In this administration, I would say, you know, the Trump Organization has been pretty upfront about the fact that they're not going to stop pursuing business deals. But I think the really shocking thing is just this sort of idea of pursuing a business deal as a pardon is also being sought. It certainly creates the appearance of a conflict, even if it's not an exchange of one for the other.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
Binance is a crypto exchange that for years was sort of one of the major exchanges. It was founded by Changpeng Zhao, CZ as he's known, in 2017 in Shanghai. And for years, it was really sort of on the rise, growing incredibly quickly, and was really one of the main competitors in this space.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
So as part of the settlement, Zhao stepped down as CEO, but he remained the majority shareholder. And last year he was sentenced to four months in prison. He was released in September and he's now living in Abu Dhabi.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
So our understanding is that around the time of Trump's election win last fall, Binance began exploring its options for how to return to the US market. It began telling people that it was willing to make a deal with Trump's company and that it wanted to eliminate its legal problems in the US.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
And our understanding is that around that time, it began reaching out to allies of Trump, sort of offering to strike a business deal with the family as part of this plan to return the company to the US.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
Our reporting shows that representatives of Trump's family have held talks to take a financial stake in the U.S. arm of Binance, which is a crypto exchange that in 2023 pleaded guilty and paid a pretty massive fine after it was accused of violating anti-money laundering requirements.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
So our understanding is that they got a pretty good idea for a playbook when they saw what happened in November with Justin's son, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
In November, Justin Sun, who is a China-born crypto entrepreneur who is facing charges from the SEC, invested $30 million in World Liberty Financial, which is a crypto company that is backed by the Trump family and was launched a couple of months before the election. And, you know, for Sun, we saw that last month the SEC asked a court to pause its fraud case against him.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
And so, you know, it remains to be seen how that will shake out once that 60-day pause is over. And when Binance saw that Sun had made this investment, they thought, you know, that that could be a route for us to go here.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
And so they began considering making a deal with World Liberty Financial or potentially sort of going the same route of a cash infusion in the company in exchange for a pardon for the founder.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
So we know that sometime after they internally discussed whether they should go this Justin Sun route of investing in World Liberty Financial, these talks about a business deal continue. And at some point here, Steve Witkoff, who's a longtime friend of Trump, who also co-founded World Liberty Financial, gets involved in these talks.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
We don't know the exact TikTok of how these talks unfolded and when each person got involved, but we do know that they've continued even since Trump's inauguration, as well as the push for a pardon for CZ.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
The reason that CZ is seeking a pardon, given that he's already served his prison sentence and has been released, is that Binance has wanted for at least several months now to return to the US market. And a pardon would really help him clear the way to do that.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
The other thing a pardon could help with is that it complicates Binance's business in the European Union to have a majority shareholder be a convicted felon. And so were he to be pardoned, it could also sort of ease some hurdles abroad as well.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
So it's a great question because you have to think that, you know, this kind of deal, if it became public, would bring a lot of scrutiny that the Trump family and World Liberty Financial might not be interested in.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
At the same time, I think if they did go forward with a stake in this American arm of Binance and if the Trump family or World Liberty Financial were to have a stake in that, its value is likely to, you know, really increase after returning to the U.S. market. And so for them, it would mean sort of a piece of this pie that is expected to grow if they return to the U.S.,
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
Well, you know, it's not unusual for the Trump organization to pursue deals, including foreign deals. They've been pretty open about that. But what is unusual is, you know, pursuing a deal with a company, first of all, that was convicted of a crime, you know, just over a year ago, but also one whose founder is actively asking for something from the administration.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
It certainly fits with a pattern of the Trump family or representatives of the Trump family pursuing a number of different business ventures while Trump has been in office.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
And so the fact of someone, you know, pushing for an official government action from the president at the same time as accompanies in talks with the president's family or representatives of the president's family is just a pretty striking mixture between official and personal business.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
I would say that since the election, there has been a cash bonanza for the Trump family. So we saw this really sort of ramp up during the transition when Amazon had done a $40 million deal to buy a documentary about Melania Trump's return to the White House. And this was a pretty shocking number because it was the most Amazon had ever paid for a documentary.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
And as we reported last month, it was also three times what the next highest bidder had offered for the documentary. So that was one. The second is that Trump has been pressing the companies that he sued while he was out of office to now settle their lawsuits that he had brought against them. And he's been pretty successful.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
We've seen a handful of major settlements that total, I think about, we're at $50 million so far, much of which is going to Trump's presidential library.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
And then we've seen this meme coin that Trump launched in the days before his inauguration that has already collected hundreds of millions of dollars in trading and other fees that go to entities affiliated with Trump.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
So one thing we heard was that just a couple of weeks ago at Mar-a-Lago, at a private fundraiser for donors who had paid a billion dollars to be there, he was kind of marveling at the ability of a coin like that to bring in potentially billions of dollars. And he actually went around the audience and asked whether they knew what his coin was worth. And the answer he got was that
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
The total market cap at the time was about $13 billion. But so, you know, it's clear that Trump is paying attention to these things.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
And then we really saw him sharply turn during the campaign and especially in 2024 towards the industry and started calling himself the crypto president. But I think there were a couple of factors at play. The first is that I think he saw the potential for fundraising from that industry.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
We know that between his election and his inauguration, he brought in something like $50 million from the industry for his inaugural fund and other committees. And I think he likes the idea of sort of returning the crypto industry to the U.S. and making the U.S., as he has said, the crypto capital of the world.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
And then the SEC, which Trump doesn't directly control, but he certainly appointed regulators who are friendly to the crypto industry. We've seen them drop or pause a dozen lawsuits against crypto companies so far. So, you know, he'd be getting a stake in a crypto company at a time where crypto is thriving in the U.S.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
In an ordinary administration, the family of a president pursuing a business deal like this, particularly in an industry that the president is actively making rules for and sort of doing things that the industry has long wanted, would in any ordinary administration be an enormous scandal.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
Yes, I think it is safe to say that there has been a lot of criticism of his avid pursuit of business deals while in office. But, you know, I think it's also worth noting that the people in the government who would really be in a position to try and do something about this, for example, the head of the Office of Government Ethics, Trump fired soon after becoming president.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
And he's installed a close ally of his in that job. So the number of people within the federal government, or at least within the executive branch, who have the standing to kind of speak out about some of these conflicts, there's a pretty small number of those.
The Journal.
Trump Family Has Explored Deal with Binance
So you're right that it was a big issue the first time around. But I would say that this administration is so far the first term kind of on steroids when it comes to this stuff. I thought one thing that was really striking was Eric Trump in October, the month before the election, said in an interview with the journal that sort of the first time around, they tried to do everything right.