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Donald Trump has asked the US Supreme Court to postpone a legislative deadline that would force the sale or ban of the TikTok app to allow for a “political solution” once he is sworn in as president next month.
Under a bill approved by Congress in April, ByteDance, China's parent company, must divest Tik Tok by January 19, 2025 — the day before Trump is inaugurated as president — or face a nationwide ban.
This legislation came after US officials warned that the platform poses national security risks, in part because ByteDance It could be forced to share the personal information of 170 million Americans who use the video app with Beijing under Chinese law.
But Trump asked the Supreme Court to postpone the deadline while it considers the merits of the case in order to give his incoming administration “the opportunity to pursue a policy resolution of the issues raised in the case,” according to a brief. Submitted on Friday.
During the election campaign before his re-election, Trump said he opposed banning the platform and promised to do so “Save” the application.
The effort to do so represents a dramatic shift from 2020, when then-President Trump issued an executive order banning the app in the US and gave ByteDance 90 days to divest its US assets and any data TikTok collected in the US. The order was blocked by the courts and eventually overturned by US President Joe Biden, who later signed the law at the heart of the case.
“Only President Trump has the savvy deal-making experience, electoral mandate, and political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the government — concerns that President Trump himself has acknowledged,” the briefing said.
The document added that Trump “takes no position on the merits of this dispute.”
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The request puts Trump, who will have no authority over the Supreme Court as president, in the middle of risky legal proceedings that will decide the fate of the famous application in the United States.
The Supreme Court set the oral arguments session in the case on January 10.
The brief comes after the Supreme Court decided earlier this month to hear TikTok's appeal against a lower court ruling that rejected its challenge to the law, as well as its subsequent request to stay the action pending further court action.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit earlier this month upheld the law, rejecting TikTok's claim that it was unconstitutional and violated First Amendment protections for free speech.
