Trump says he had 'very good experience with TikTok' as court considers ban
President-elect Trump said Monday that he had a “very good experience with TikTok” as he awaits the Supreme Court’s decision on a law that could ban the popular video-sharing platform starting Sunday.
Trump emphasized the role that TikTok played in boosting his support with young people during the election.
“We won young people, and I think that’s a big credit to TikTok, so I’m not opposed to TikTok,” the president-elect said on Newsmax.
The law requires TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to divest from the app by Jan. 19 or face a ban from U.S. app stores and networks. TikTok, which contends the law violates the First Amendment, argued its case before the Supreme Court on Friday.
“I really have to wait to see what happens at the Supreme Court because nobody knows what they can do and who’s gonna do it until they hear from the Supreme Court,” Trump said, when asked what he will do if TikTok is not sold by the deadline.
“They’re gonna be making a ruling pretty soon,” he added. “But I had a very good experience with TikTok.”
It’s unclear when exactly the Supreme Court will rule on the TikTok case. The justices took up the case on an expedited schedule, hearing oral arguments mere weeks after TikTok appealed to the court.
The rapid timeframe gives the court an opportunity to issue a ruling before the Jan. 19 deadline. This could entail a decision on the merits of the case — the First Amendment question at hand — or a decision on TikTok’s emergency request to put the law on hold.
In a friend-of-court-brief filed late last month, Trump asked the justices to delay the law so he can negotiate a deal to “save” the platform when he takes office, one day after the divest-or-ban law goes into effect.
“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,” D. John Sauer, Trump’s personal attorney whom he has nominated to be his solicitor general, wrote in the filing.
However, the Supreme Court seemed skeptical of TikTok’s arguments Friday and expressed sympathy with the government’s claims that the app’s China-based parent company poses national security risks.