Trump tells SCOTUS that only he can save TikTok from ban
TikTok, the popular viral video platform, is still slated to be banned in the U.S. next year. And with 2024 coming to an end, the January 19, 2025 ban date for TikTok is fast approaching.
Just weeks before Christmas, the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to hear an appeal filed by TikTok and its parent company ByteDance. The oral arguments in that case are set to begin Jan. 10.
However, President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, just one day after the pending TikTok ban, is urging the Supreme Court to just grant a stay on the TikTok ban deadline date.
Why? Because Trump humbly claims that only he can solve the issue and save TikTok from being banned.
Trump to SCOTUS: Let me save TikTok
In his message to the Supreme Court, Trump asserts a myriad of reasons as to why he's uniquely positioned to address the supposed national security concerns tied with TikTok being owned by a China-based company while simultaneously saving the platform from a ban.
In the brief, Trump drops how many followers he has on TikTok (more than 14 million) and how the platform played a crucial role in his successful reelection campaign. The president-elect makes mention of Brazil's recent ban on Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter, to showcase a similar case of "historic danger" when a government bans a social media platform. In addition, Trump also cites his expertise as the founder of "another resoundingly successful social-media platform," Truth Social, to show why he has specific insight on the issues.
And, of course, Trump highlights that he's the best at making deals.
"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," reads an amicus brief filed by Trump to the court on Friday.
Trump did want to ban TikTok but doesn't want to anymore
Readers may recall that TikTok ban talks began under the first Trump administration. In fact, Trump was on the verge of going forward with an actual TikTok ban in late 2020. TikTok went out of its way to partner with the U.S.-based Oracle to host all of its U.S.-related data to meet Trump's terms to avoid a ban.
However, after Trump lost in 2020, TikTok's pending ban was basically abandoned by the first Trump administration.
Under the Biden administration, the concerns regarding ByteDance's ownership of TikTok were renewed resulting in the latest move to force the China-based company to sell TikTok or lose its ability to operate in the U.S. Now, after utilizing TikTok for his winning 2024 reelection bid, Trump is singing a different tune about the platform.
Earlier this month, Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at Mar-a-lago. Then, right before Christmas, at an event for the conservative organization Turning Point USA, shared his views on TikTok to the crowd.
"They brought me a chart, and it was a record, and it was so beautiful to see, and as I looked at it, I said, 'Maybe we gotta keep this sucker around for a little while,'" Trump said after claiming his TikTok videos receive "billions of views."
It's unclear as to what stats Trump was referring to, as his highest-performing video on TikTok was the first one he posted, which received 179 million views. Trump hasn't posted on TikTok since before the polls closed on election day.