It sounds like Donald Trump has made a move that could help save TikTok from a ban in the United States.
On Friday, Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to temporarily halt the enforcement of a law that would ban the social media app TikTok in the U.S. on Jan. 19 unless it was sold by its Chinese parent company.
In April, President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which effectively bans TikTok in the United States.
The law mandates that TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, divest the platform to an American company or face a ban.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case on Jan. 10, but Trump is requesting a delay in their ruling.
In a statement on Friday, Trump urged the Supreme Court to postpone its decision to provide his administration with time to seek a “political resolution.”
“President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute,” wrote D. John Sauer, Trump’s lawyer and his choice for U.S. solicitor general, according to NBC News.
“Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case, thus permitting President Trump’s incoming Administration the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case.”
The statement implies Trump is confident in finding a resolution before the court must decide.
“President Trump alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the Government—concerns which President Trump himself has acknowledged,” Sauer wrote.
We’ll have to see if Trump can work out a deal to prevent the app from being banned.
[NBC News]
