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Donald Trump has asked the US Supreme Court to delay a legislative deadline that would force the sale or ban of TikTok to allow for a “political resolution” once he is sworn in as president on next month.
Under a bill approved by Congress in April, Chinese parent company ByteDance must divest its business TikTok by January 19, 2025 – the day before Trump is inaugurated as president – or face a nationwide ban.
The legislation came after U.S. officials warned that the platform posed national security risks, in part because ByteDance could be forced to share the personal information of the 170 million Americans who use the video app with Beijing under Chinese law.
But Trump asked the highest court to suspend the deadline while it considers the merits of the case, to give his new administration “the opportunity to seek a political resolution of the issues at issue in the case.” , according to a brief press release. filed Friday.
During the campaign trail leading up to his re-election, Trump said he opposed banning the platform and promised to “register” the application.
Efforts to achieve this represent a turnaround from 2020, when then-President Trump issued an executive order to block the app in the United States and gave ByteDance 90 days to divest from its U.S. assets and all the data that TikTok had collected in the United States. That order was blocked by the courts and ultimately revoked by U.S. President Joe Biden, who then signed the law at the heart of the case.
The briefing said: “Only President Trump has the perfect deal-making expertise, electoral mandate, and political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing national security concerns expressed by the administration — concerns that President Trump himself has acknowledged. »
The filing adds that Trump “takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute.”
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The request throws Trump, who as president would have no authority over the Supreme Court, in the middle of a tense legal proceeding that will decide the fate of the popular app in the United States.
The highest court has scheduled oral arguments in the case for January 10.
The brief comes after the Supreme Court decided earlier this month to hear TikTok’s appeal of a lower court ruling rejecting its challenge to the law, as well as its subsequent request to stay the measure pending new legal proceedings.
Earlier this month, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the law, rejecting TikTok’s claim that it was unconstitutional and violated the state’s free speech protections. first amendment.
