President-elect Donald Trump, who signed an executive order in 2020 that threatened to ban the use of TikTok, urged the Supreme Court to let him “save” the social media platform. A nationwide TikTok ban is set to go into effect starting Jan. 19, if its Chinese parent company doesn’t sell its stake to a U.S. company.
In a 25-page filing, Trump pleaded with the justices to pause the deadline until after his Jan. 20 inauguration so that his administration can “seek a negotiated resolution,” eliminating the need for the Supreme Court to rule on the case.
After touting himself as “one of the most powerful, prolific, and influential users of social media in history,” Trump argued that his “14.7 million followers on TikTok with whom he actively communicates,” allow him to “evaluate TikTok’s importance as a unique medium for freedom of expression, including core political speech.”
In Trump’s amicus brief, which was submitted by D. John Sauer, Trump’s pick for solicitor general, the president-elect said he takes “no position on the merits of the dispute.” Instead, he argued that a negotiated resolution by his administration could “prevent a nationwide shutdown of TikTok, thus preserving the First Amendment rights of tens of millions of Americans, while also addressing the government’s national security concerns.”
Trump’s calls to preserve free speech via the means of TikTok comes as he has repeatedly vowed to cut funding to schools that provide education on gender identity and structural racism.
The brief continued to make the case for the former reality star and billionaire, stating, “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.”
During Trump’s first term as president, he signed an executive order in 2020 giving TikTok’s parent company ByteDance 45 days to sell its U.S. assets to an American company or face a ban on any transactions with U.S. citizens for national security reasons. Before the deadline could pass, Trump-linked billionaire and co-founder of Oracle Larry Ellison entered the race to acquire TikTok. In September of that year, TikTok chose Oracle to serve as its primary U.S. cloud provider.
In April, amid the country’s intensifying tech war with China, President Joe Biden signed a bill requiring ByteDance to sell its stake in TikTok by the Jan. 19 deadline or face a U.S. ban.
Earlier this month, Trump met with with TikTok CEO Shou Chew at his Mar-a-Lago estate, CBS News reported. At the time, Trump voiced his change-of-heart toward the video app, which has been valued at $100 billion. “We’ll take a look at TikTok. You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok, because I won youth by 34 points,” Trump replied at a news conference when asked about the ban. “And there are those that say that TikTok has something to do with that.”
When addressing Trump’s pivot on the matter, Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told Politico, “When it comes to Donald Trump, follow the money.”
From Rolling Stone US
