Trump Claims Executive Order Will Save TikTok, But Wants 50 Percent U.S. Ownership
President-elect Donald Trump, who once supported banning TikTok and signed an executive order targeting its parent company, is now vowing he will issue an executive order attempting to save the social platform. But there’s a major catch: he wants the app to operate under 50 percent U.S. ownership.
Apparently reacting to Trump’s promises, TikTok issued a statement saying, “In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service.”
“I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security.”
Trump added that he “would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture” and that his executive order would protect from liability any companies that helped keep TikTok accessible before the order is issued.
“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,” TikTok 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.”
U.S. users who accessed the app after it was restored were greeted with a “Welcome back!” message that said: “Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”
But Sen. Tom Cotton issued a warning Sunday before TikTok started to resume service: “Any company that hosts, distributes, services, or otherwise facilitates communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars of ruinous liability under the law, not just from DOJ, but also under securities law, shareholder lawsuits, and state AGs,” the Republican said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press that Congress “will enforce the law” banning the app. “When President Trump issued the Truth post and said, ‘Save TikTok,’ the way we read that is that he’s going to try to force along a true divestiture, changing of hands, the ownership. It’s not the platform that members of Congress are concerned about. It’s the Chinese Communist Party and their manipulation of the algorithms.”
Trump is now scrambling to resurrect the app, showing that he wants to be viewed as a hero for saving it, even though he is largely responsible for jumpstarting momentum to ban the platform — and Democrats will have played a large part in allowing that perception.
President Joe Biden signed the TikTok ban into law last spring after it passed Congress with bipartisan support due to national security concerns regarding China’s influence over the app’s content and access to the data belonging to 170 million Americans on the app. The legislation gave ByteDance, the platform’s Chinese owner, until Jan. 19 to sell TikTok or else it would be banned. TikTok as well as creators on the app attempted to challenge the ban in court, but the Supreme Court upheld it on Friday after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld it last month
Under the ban, companies like Google and Apple are prohibited from hosting TikTok in their app stores, but TikTok itself went a step further by cutting off U.S. users this weekend.
“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office,” a message on the TikTok landing page read after approximately 10:30 p.m. Saturday, when U.S. users lost access to the app shortly before the law banning it went into effect.
Trump claimed that his proposed deal for 50 percent U.S. ownership would be “a joint venture set up between the U.S. and whichever purchase we so choose” and speculated that “with our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions.”
Trump previously promised to grant TikTok a 90 day extension from the ban once he returned to office. Alan Rozenshtein, an associate professor at University of Minnesota Law School has written that one potential avenue is through the president’s ability to define what constitutes a “qualified divestiture” under the legislation. Rozenshtein wrote that ByteDance could “go through the motions of reshuffling some details of its ownership stake in TikTok,” allowing Trump to claim that the company has divested enough of its ownership to get around the ban.
The Biden administration in a last minute reversal said it would not enforce the ban or fine companies that keep the app available for download, an attempt to punt enforcement to the Trump White House. Some Democrats in Congress also attempted to delay the ban, with Sen. Ed Markey introducing legislation that would push the ban back by 90 days.
“Given the sheer fact of timing, this administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next administration, which takes office on Monday,” Biden Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday.
This breaking news story has been updated.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appears to be currying favor with Trump. He reportedly will be a guest at Trump’s inauguration and will join him for a “victory rally” reminiscent of Trump’s campaign events at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., on Sunday.
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