Trump's filing with the Supreme Court could delay US TikTok ban

ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, has long been trying to prevent the US ban on the app. Courts have rejected all of ByteDance’s appeals and requests for an emergency pause of the anti-TikTok law. The company still has one last chance when it presents its case to the Supreme Court in January. Now, Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to delay the TikTok ban.

The re-elected president of the United States has emerged as a potentially crucial factor in avoiding the US TikTok ban. Trump has expressed his intention to try to keep the world’s most popular short video platform available in the country. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has also made direct approaches to Trump to address the situation.

Donald Trump asks US Supreme Court to delay TikTok ban

Trump’s attorney D. John Sauer filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court saying that the effective date of the US TikTok ban is “unfortunately timed.” Joe Biden signed the bill in April, setting January 19, 2025, as the deadline. Meanwhile, Trump’s inauguration will take place on January 20, just one day later. So, he would find the law already implemented without the possibility of participating in the decision.

“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 the filing. ByteDance used the same argument previously to try to delay the law’s entry into force.

The support that Trump has received on the platform has also played in favor of his change of mind. During his first term, Donald Trump wanted to ban TikTok from the United States. Just like the DOJ does now, he claimed concerns related to national security as the main reason.

However, in March of this year, the—at that time—presidential candidate surprised the tech industry by showing himself in favor of TikTok’s permanence in the country. He claimed that banning the app would “make Facebook bigger and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media.” It’s noteworthy that Trump and Zuckerberg have since patched things up. However, his stance on keeping TikTok available in the US remains.

Microsoft is a potential surprise participant in the operation

Trump also suggested that he might be talking to Microsoft about participating in the process. He said that the Redmond giant could “work out a deal, an appropriate deal, so the Treasury of the United States gets a lot of money.” There are no more specific details on this yet.