President-elect Donald Trump made a move that will allow more time for TikTok to avoid a ban in the United States.
On Friday, Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to pause the implementation of the law that would ban the social media app TikTok in the United States on Jan. 19 if it was not sold by its Chinese parent company.
Back in April, Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, effectively banning TikTok in the United States.
The law would require TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the platform to an American company or face a ban.
The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in the case on Jan. 10, but Trump wants them to delay their decision.
In a statement on Friday, Trump requested that the Supreme Court delay their decision to allow him and his administration time to find a “political resolution.”
“President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute,” wrote D. John Sauer, Trump’s lawyer who is also the president-elect’s pick 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 suggests that Trump believes he can find a solution before the court would have to rule.
“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 how this situation plays out.