President-elect Trump could keep his promise to “save” TikTok — and still address the national security concerns that prompted Congress to authorize a ban — by brokering a sale of the Chinese-owned app to a U.S. buyer, experts said. The Post.
China-based ByteDance has until January. 19 to completely divest his TikTok stake or face a total ban on the app from the US.
In a last-ditch effort to overturn the law, ByteDance and TikTok have appealed to the Supreme Court — and reached out to Trump in hopes that he might intervene somehow.
The Supreme Court agreed to take up the case on Wednesday and has scheduled oral arguments for January. 10 – just nine days before the ban goes into effect.
A US appeals court earlier rejected TikTok’s bid to block the bill in a 3-0 decision, suggesting the company faces an uphill battle to win a delayed deadline.
If Trump agrees to let TikTok remain online in the U.S. and opts in, a full divestment is the only realistic way forward, according to Michael Sobolik, senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and author of “Countering the Big Game of China”.
“If you really want TikTok to operate in the United States, and if you want it to operate safely for Americans, then there needs to be a complete separation from its parent company,” Sobolik said. “And there can be no ownership or control of any kind, direct or indirect, by an adversary foreign government. I don’t think there is any alternative.”
Trump – who led the initial push to ban TikTok during his first term – said at a press conference on Monday that he has a “warm spot in my heart” for TikTok and would “take a look” at the situation . Shortly after, Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Details from the meeting have not yet been released, and it is unclear whether the talks between Trump and Chew made any progress toward a resolution.
Representatives for TikTok and the Trump transition team did not return requests for comment.
Brokering a deal will not be easy. TikTok has insisted it is not for sale and has argued that the tight sales window made it impossible to find a buyer, even if it were inclined.
China has also said it will resist any attempt to force a TikTok sale — and Beijing has export controls to stop the sale of its algorithm.
Still, the looming deadline “creates an excellent opportunity for a win-win situation” if Trump can strike a deal, according to Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Select Committee on China, who led the charge on the ban-or-sell bill.
“President Trump is an excellent negotiator. He loves America. He loves our national security,” Moolenaar told The Post. “He also recognizes that TikTok is a very valuable platform, and I think he will be able to build a coalition of people who want to see this app continue in the United States, but do it in a safe way.”
The Department of Justice described TikTok as “a national security threat of great depth and scale” that functions as a Chinese espionage and propaganda tool on US soil, capable of covertly manipulating the content served to users through its recommendation algorithm and mass data collection such as location. – tracking, among other risks.
TikTok has argued that the sell-or-ban law is unconstitutional and has vehemently denied that it poses a threat to national security.
Aside from helping to negotiate a deal for TikTok, Trump is limited in what he can do to intervene. The law gives the president the power to impose a 90-day extension in January. 19 deadline if there are signs of significant progress towards an agreement.
Trump could push Congress to change or reverse the law, but that may be difficult given the overwhelming bipartisan support he received.
It could also direct the Justice Department not to enforce the law — but that would shift much of the legal responsibility to app store operators like Google and Apple.
Last week, the House Select Committee on China sent letters to Google’s Sundar Pichai and Apple’s Tim Cook reminding them that they are required to remove TikTok from their app stores by January. 19 if a sale was not reached.
Uncertainty about Trump’s TikTok strategy has created a conundrum for Republicans — including some close allies — who have vocally supported a ban.
“Trump was the original champion of banning TikTok, so it makes it difficult for his Republican colleagues to now have a different opinion,” said a DC insider who requested anonymity. “Trump can get away with it, but they certainly can’t.”
While toning down his rhetoric on TikTok, Trump has appointed several China hawks and outspoken critics of TikTok to key cabinet positions and government agencies.
This includes Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio, Undersecretary of State nominee Jacob Helberg, incoming US Ambassador to the United Nations Elise Stefanik and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.
It’s possible Trump will seek to use TikTok as a bargaining chip as part of broader negotiations with China, according to Nathan Leamer, a former FCC policy adviser and CEO of Fixed Gear Strategies.
“With Trump in office, it’s a whole new game of holding China accountable,” Leamer said. “TikTok is an arrow in his quiver. Maybe they make a deal for CCP to give up. No one is against the platform if it is separate from the ownership of a totalitarian state.”
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