How many lawsuits has Donald Trump settled out of court in the past 5 years?

1. What the reporting documents: named recent settlements

In the past year or so reporting identifies multiple corporate settlements with Trump: Meta agreed to pay $25 million to resolve a suit about post‑Jan. 6 account suspensions ^{[4] [1]}, Paramount/ CBS parent paid about $16 million to settle a dispute over a 60 Minutes edit ^{[2] [1]}, Disney/ABC agreed to pay about $15–16 million in a defamation claim over comments by George Stephanopoulos ^{[3] [1]}, and Alphabet/YouTube agreed to pay $24.5 million (with $22 million directed by Trump to the Trust for the National Mall) to settle his 2021 YouTube suspension suit ^{[5] [4]}.

2. Reporters’ framing: a spike since the 2024 election

Multiple outlets frame these settlements as a notable shift after Trump’s 2024 victory: Business Insider and Axios describe a wave of media and tech companies choosing settlement over litigation once Trump returned to power, arguing his election increased his leverage and produced a flurry of deals ^{[6] [2]}. Axios called the 2025 media settlements a record‑tying year for Trump’s media and defamation suits ^[2].

3. Aggregate dollar figures but not a firm case count

Some outlets add up money and describe a “settlement spree” reaching large totals (Axios and others reference roughly $1.2 billion in related university and institutional settlements in one tracker piece), but the compiled reporting in the provided set focuses on sums and a few high‑profile cases rather than producing a verified count of every out‑of‑court settlement over the last five years ^[1]. Therefore, a precise number of “lawsuits settled out of court in the past five years” is not stated in these sources (not found in current reporting).

4. Two interpretive perspectives in the coverage

One line of reporting emphasizes that businesses prefer settlement to avoid regulatory or political fallout and to secure approvals (for example, Paramount’s settlement coinciding with an FCC merger process) — a pragmatic explanation that stresses leverage and risk management ^{[1] [6]}. Another perspective — raised by press‑freedom advocates in the coverage — warns that settling with a sitting or former president risks chilling robust journalism and sets dangerous precedents for the press and Big Tech ^{[2] [6]}.

5. Caveats and limitations in the available sources

The supplied sources document specific high‑dollar deals and journalists’ analysis of a wider pattern, but none supplies a definitive list or verified count of all out‑of‑court settlements involving Trump across the past five years; the phrase “not found in current reporting” applies to any definitive numeric answer based solely on these items (not found in current reporting) ^{[1] [2] [4]}. Additionally, some items are summaries or aggregations (Wikipedia, Axios, Business Insider, Guardian, Reuters, Ars Technica) and may themselves rely on further primary filings not included here ^{[7] [2] [6] [8] [9] [4]}.

6. How you could get a verifiable count

To produce a defensible number you would need: (a) a search of federal and state court dockets for cases listing Trump or his organizations as plaintiffs or defendants over the last five years and (b) confirmation of each matter’s disposition (settled, dismissed, tried) via court filings or definitive corporate statements. The present set of news reports documents several settled cases and a trend but does not substitute for that case‑by‑case docket review (not found in current reporting) ^{[4] [2]}.

7. Bottom line for readers

Reporting in these sources shows multiple, high‑value out‑of‑court settlements in the recent period — especially with major media and tech companies — and journalists describe a broader pattern after the 2024 election; but the exact count of suits settled by Trump in the past five years is not provided in the available reporting and would require a systematic docket review to verify ^{[1] [2] [4]}.