--- title: Donald Trump: Settlement Deadline Days Before Inauguration description: The deadline for Donald Trump to pay $25 million in the Trump University settlement is Jan. 18—two days before he will be sworn in president canonical: https://time.com/4607958/donald-trump-university-settlement/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-20T17:01:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:15.056Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Will Have to Pay a Big Settlement Just 2 Days Before He’s Sworn In og:description: He's about to shell out $25 million og:url: https://time.com/4607958/donald-trump-university-settlement/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d0955c7b5cb6a9a/6988b38fa988cae06c6ba7dd/donald-trump-university-settlement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5568 og:image:height: 3132 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-TRUMP og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Will Have to Pay a Big Settlement Just 2 Days Before He’s Sworn In twitter:description: He's about to shell out $25 million twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d0955c7b5cb6a9a/6988b38fa988cae06c6ba7dd/donald-trump-university-settlement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Will Have to Pay His Trump University Settlement Just 2 Days Before He’s Sworn In > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Dec 20, 2016 5:01 PM UTC  President-elect Donald Trump speaks in Mobile, Ala., during a 'Thank You Tour 2016' rally on Dec. 17, 2016. President-elect Donald Trump speaks in Mobile, Ala., during a 'Thank You Tour 2016' rally on Dec. 17, 2016. Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Dec 20, 2016 5:01 PM UTC The deadline for [Donald Trump](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-donald-trump/?xid=homepage) to pay a $25 million settlement in the [Trump University lawsuit](http://time.com/4576543/donald-trump-university-lawsuit-settlement/) is Jan. 18—two days before he will be sworn in as President of the United States. The settlement, details of which were filed Monday in federal court, dictates that $25 million be paid to the plaintiffs’ lawyers by Jan. 18, 2017, [Politico reports](http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2016/12/trump-university-settlement-filed-232839), citing [legal documents](http://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000159-1a15-df68-a979-baff39a00002). Trump’s [inauguration](http://time.com/4607439/donald-trump-inauguration-sons-nonprofit-texas/) will take place on Jan. 20. The settlement marks the conclusion of three lawsuits against Trump’s now-defunct for-profit real estate seminar, alleging that Trump University [defrauded students](http://time.com/4353116/trump-university-documents-released/). Plaintiffs in the class-action suits are estimated to receive refunds worth half of what they paid to Trump University. Of the total, $4 million will be paid to settle the state lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Trump and Trump University did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement. “By any metric, this is a fair, adequate, and reasonable settlement,” attorneys for both parties wrote in the [motion](http://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000159-1a15-df68-a979-baff39a00002) filed Monday. “Both Plaintiffs and Defendants believe in the merits of their cases and compromised to reach this result.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4607958/donald-trump-university-settlement/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4607958/donald-trump-university-settlement/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Will Have to Pay His Trump University Settlement Just 2 Days Before He’s Sworn In","datePublished":"2016-12-20T17:01:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:15.056Z","description":"He's about to shell out $25 million","url":"https://time.com/4607958/donald-trump-university-settlement/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election","White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d0955c7b5cb6a9a/6988b38fa988cae06c6ba7dd/donald-trump-university-settlement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d0955c7b5cb6a9a/6988b38fa988cae06c6ba7dd/donald-trump-university-settlement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-TRUMP","caption":"US-POLITICS-TRUMP","creditText":"Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4607958/donald-trump-university-settlement/","name":"Donald Trump Will Have to Pay His Trump University Settlement Just 2 Days Before He’s Sworn In"}}]}] ```