President-elect Donald Trump is expected to halt a ban on TikTok, keeping a campaign promise to save the wildly popular social media app, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
Despite initially calling for the Chinese-owned TikTok to be banned, Trump pivoted during the 2024 campaign cycle and used his new-found admiration for the app to appeal to younger voters.
"FOR ALL OF THOSE THAT WANT TO SAVE TIK TOK IN AMERICA, VOTE TRUMP!" he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
In April, President Joe Biden signed bipartisan legislation that gave ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, nine months to sell the company. If unable to complete a sale by Jan. 12, 2025, the platform will be banned in the U.S.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, grants the president the power to extend the divestment deadline by 90 days if the administration sees that "significant progress" has been made toward a sale.
Kellyanne Conway, who ran Trump's first presidential campaign, remains close to the president-elect and shares his advocacy for TikTok.
"He appreciates the breadth and reach of TikTok, which he used masterfully along with podcasts and new media entrants to win," Conway told the outlet. "There are many ways to hold China to account outside alienating 180 million U.S. users each month. Trump recognized early on that Democrats are the party of bans, gas-powered cars, menthol cigarettes, vapes, plastic straws and TikTok, and to let them own that draconian, anti-personal choice space."
Conway and other advisors who spoke the outlet anonymously say Trump is expected to intervene on behalf of TikTok if necessary.
Alan Rozenshtein, a former national security adviser to the Justice Department, said there are different ways Trump could get around the ban by urging Congress to repeal the law or request that his attorney general simply not enforce the law.
"If you're the general counsel of Apple and [CEO] Tim Cook turns to you and says, 'Can we host TikTok on our app stores,' you're in a very awkward position if the answer is 'Trump said we could' in a random tweet," Rozenshtein said. "How much do you trust Trump? If he changes his mind, are they retroactively liable? Do they really want to be in that position?"
Following the election, a spokesperson for ByteDance speaking under condition of anonymity said the company remains optimistic.
Newsmax has reached out to the president-elect's transition team for comment.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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