Trump evolves from backing TikTok ban to being seen as app's savior
President-elect Donald Trump performed a years-long about-face on the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, culminating with him being credited for saving the app on Sunday.
Trump's first administration initially proposed banning the app or forcing its sale to a non-Chinese owner, but the plan never came to fruition until President Biden took office in 2020. A bipartisan group of lawmakers approved the legislation at the time and Biden signed it, setting the ban-or-sell deadline to Jan. 19.
To this point, Trump and other politicians were in agreement that TikTok posed a major national security threat due to its being owned by ByteDance, a company beholden to the Chinese Communist Party.
The app briefly went dark on Sunday as no purchase agreement had been reached, only for Trump to step in and vow to push back the deadline.
As a result, TikTok's 170 million American users were instead presented with a message thanking Trump for his efforts to save the app.
"Welcome back!" the TikTok message read. "Thank you for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!"
Earlier Sunday, Trump wrote on TRUTH Social that he is "asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark!" He vowed to extend the ban-or-sell deadline with an executive order on Monday, though he did not offer details on the extension.
"By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to [stay] up. Without U.S. approval, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars - maybe trillions," Trump wrote. "Therefore, my initial thought is a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the U.S. gets a 50% ownership in a joint venture set up between the U.S. and whichever purchase we so choose."
Trump's newfound support for TikTok came after the company's CEO, Shou Chew, visited the president-elect at his Mar-a-Lago home in December.
TIKTOK SHOUTS OUT TRUMP AS APP GOES DARK FOR MILLIONS OF USERS ACROSS US
TikTok later released another statement from its account on X, again thanking the incoming president.
"We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive," the statement said. "It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States."
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Despite the extension, ByteDance has repeatedly refused offers to sell the app. The company has not weighed in on whether it would support a shared ownership like the one Trump described.
Fox Business' Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.