With 22 days remaining till TikTok is effectively forced out of the U.S., President-elect Donald Trump is seemingly looking to make good on his campaign trail pledge to save the app.
Or at the least, he wants an opportunity to negotiate an alternative solution that would keep the app available for Americans.
Today, the Trump transition team has filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court which calls for a stay of execution for the app, so that Trump can use his “consummate dealmaking expertise” to arrange a deal that will appease both sides.
As per the brief:
“Through his historic victory on November 5, 2024, President Trump received a powerful electoral mandate from American voters to protect the free-speech rights of all Americans – including the 170 million Americans who use TikTok. President Trump is uniquely situated to vindicate these interests, because “the President and the Vice President of the United States are the only elected officials who represent all the voters in the Nation.”
Moreover, the brief states, Trump is “one of the most powerful, prolific, and influential users of social media in history,” which leaves him uniquely placed to assess the value and threat of TikTok personally.
“Consistent with his commanding presence in this area, President Trump currently has 14.7 million followers on TikTok with whom he actively communicates, allowing him to evaluate TikTok’s importance as a unique medium for freedom of expression, including core political speech.”
I mean, regular users definitely don’t have the same level of insight into how such platforms may be used for influence operations, and classified briefings from cybersecurity officials are what got the majority of U.S. senators to approve the TikTok sell-off bill in the first place.
But Trump believes that he knows the app, and he’s stated several times that he likes TikTok now, because he’s a “big star” in the app. Which is a far cry from his original push to force a sell-off of the app back in 2020, but Trump does tend to follow his own interests in many respects.
As such, Trump is now seeking to extend the deadline so that he can facilitate a new TikTok deal.
Back in 2020, when Trump originally wanted a TikTok sell-off (in retaliation against China, he said, for COVID-19), he eventually settled on a deal that would see the app sold to an Oracle/Walmart consortium, benefiting his friend, Oracle chief Larry Ellison.
Maybe, Trump could look to revisit such a deal, which was all but approved, before the incoming Biden administration re-assessed its approach. Which meant that TikTok was allowed to continue its operations under Chinese ownership, but maybe, with Trump back in power, that deal could be reignited, which could save the app.
Or Trump may have something else in mind, but either way, the current deadline will mean that TikTok is forced out of the U.S. before his inauguration, which dilutes Trump’s capacity to find an alternative solution.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear TikTok’s final appeal against the government’s sell-off bill on January 10th, and if it does approve Trump’s request, that will likely mean that the app will remain available for Americans for a little longer, at the least.
And maybe, Trump can save it. There’s no detail available at this stage as to how exactly Trump and his team might look to do so. But he clearly wants to stop the bill taking effect, and he could still provide a lifeline for the platform’s 170 million U.S. users.
