Donald Trump asks Supreme Court to delay TikTok ban to achieve ‘political solution’
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Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to delay a legislative deadline to force a sale or ban TikTok in order to reach a “political solution” after he is sworn in as president next month.
Under a bill approved by Congress in April, Chinese parent company ByteDance must spin off TikTok by January 19, 2025, the day before Trump takes office as president, or face a nationwide ban.
The legislation comes after U.S. officials warned that the platform posed a national security risk, in part because ByteDance could be forced under Chinese law to share with Beijing the personal information of the 170 million Americans who use the video app.
But Trump has asked the Supreme Court to delay the deadline while considering the merits of the case to give his incoming administration “an opportunity to pursue a political solution to the issues in this case,” according to a brief.
During his pre-reelection campaign, Trump said he opposed the platform’s ban and pledged to “save” the app.
The effort represents a U-turn from 2020, when then-President Trump issued an executive order blocking the app in the U.S. and giving ByteDance 90 days to divest its U.S. assets and TikTok in Any data collected by the United States. The order was blocked by the courts and eventually revoked by U.S. President Joe Biden, who later signed the law at the heart of the case.
“Only President Trump has the perfect deal expertise, electoral mandate, and political will to negotiate a resolution that saves the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the administration — something that President Trump himself has acknowledged,” the brief states. A worry.
The document added that Trump “takes no position on the underlying issues in this dispute.”
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The request plunges Trump into a contentious legal battle that, as president, without the power of the Supreme Court, could decide the fate of the popular app in the United States.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hold oral arguments in the case on January 10.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court decided to hear TikTok’s appeal against a lower court ruling that dismissed TikTok’s challenge to the law and subsequently requested a halt to the measure pending further court proceedings.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the law earlier this month, rejecting TikTok’s claims that it was unconstitutional and violated First Amendment protections of free speech.
