President-elect Donald Trump has asked the US Supreme Court to halt a ban on TikTok until he takes office so he can ‘negotiate a resolution’.
Trump, who returns to the White House a day after TikTok must divest from its Chinese parent company or be banned, argued that he will figure out a way to ‘save’ the popular social media platform.
‘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,’ wrote his lawyer, John Sauer, in a court filing on Friday.
‘In light of these interests – including, most importantly, his overarching responsibility for the United States’ national security and foreign policy – President Trump opposes banning TikTok in the United States at this juncture, and seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office.’
Trump said that the clash around TikTok can be resolved ‘through political means’.
Supreme Court justices are set to debate the matter during oral arguments on January 10. Only after then are they planning to decide on keeping or changing the January 19 deadline for TikTok to either be sold by ByteDance or banned. Inauguration Day is January 20.
Trump, who has 14.7million followers on TikTok, has flip-flopped on the issue.
During his first presidential term, Trump attempted to ban the platform. But during his 2024 campaign, he vowed to try to save TikTok.
Trump told the high court that the implications around First Amendment free speech rights are ‘sweeping and troubling’, while taking no position on legal arguments in the case.
The incoming president acknowledged ‘significant and pressing’ security concerns from ByteDance but also pointed to a ‘dangerous global precedent’ that could be established on government censorship.
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