Experts told The Post that President-elect Trump could keep his pledge to “save” TikTok — and still address the national security concerns that authorized Congress to impose the ban — by selling the platform to a U.S. buyer in China. By brokering the sale of owned apps.
China-based ByteDance has It will have until January 19 to completely sell its stake in TikTok or face a full US ban. Of app.
In a last ditch effort to end the law, ByteDance and TikTok have appealed to the Supreme Court — and cozied up to Trump in the hopes that he might somehow intervene.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case on Wednesday and has scheduled oral arguments on January 10, just nine days before the ban takes effect.
a US appeals court TikTok’s bid to block the bill was previously rejected in a 3-0 decision.Which shows that the company faces an uphill battle to get relief of late.
According to Michael Sobolik, senior fellow at the US Foreign Policy Council and author of “Countering China’s Great Game”, if Trump agrees that TikTok should remain online in the US and decides to get involved, complete divestment would be the only way forward. Is the realistic way.
“If you really want TikTok to operate in the United States, and if you want it to operate safely for Americans, it needs to be completely separated from its parent company,” Sobolik said. . “And may not have any ownership or control, directly or indirectly, of any foreign hostile government. I don’t think there is any alternative to it.”
Trump — who led the original effort to ban TikTok during his first term — said at a Monday press conference that he had a “warm place” in his heart for TikTok and that he would “take a look” at the situation. Soon after, Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Details of the meeting have not yet been released and it is unclear whether the talks between Trump and Chew led to any progress toward a solution.
Representatives for TikTok and the Trump transition team did not respond to requests for comment.
Brokering a deal will be no easy feat. TikTok has insisted it is not for sale and argued that the strict disinvestment window would have made it impossible to find a buyer, even if one was interested.
China has also said it will oppose any efforts to force the sale of TikTok — and Beijing has export controls in place to prevent the sale of its algorithms.
Still, according to Representative John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Select Committee on China, if Trump can strike a deal, the looming deadline “creates a huge opportunity for a win-win situation.” , who led it. Fee on restriction-or-sale bill.
“President Trump is a great negotiator. He loves America. He loves our national security,” Moolenaar told The Post. “He also believes that TikTok is a very valuable platform, and I think he’ll be able to build a coalition of people who want to continue to grow this app in the United States, but do it in a safe way.” Are.”
The Justice Department described TikTok as a “national-security threat of extreme depth and scale.” It serves as a Chinese espionage and propaganda tool On US soil, it is able to covertly manipulate the content served to users through its recommendation algorithms and massive data collection such as location-tracking, among other risks.
TikTok has argued that the sell-or-ban law is unconstitutional and has vigorously denied that it is a national security threat.
Trump is limited in what he can do to intervene, other than helping negotiate the deal for TikTok. The law gives the President the power to impose a 90-day extension of the January 19 deadline if there are signs of significant progress toward a deal.
Trump could pressure Congress to amend or overturn the law, but that may prove difficult given the overwhelming bipartisan support it has received.
He could also direct the Justice Department not to enforce the law — but that would shift greater legal responsibility onto app store operators like Google and Apple.
Last week, the House Select Committee on China sent letters to Google’s Sundar Pichai and Apple’s Tim Cook reminding them that they are obliged to remove TikTok from their app stores by January 19 if the sale does not go through.
Uncertainty about Trump’s strategy on TikTok has created a conundrum for Republicans — including some close allies — who have vocally supported the ban.
“Trump was the original champion of the TikTok ban, so it’s been difficult for his fellow Republicans to have another opinion now,” said one DC insider, requesting anonymity. “Trump can get away with it, but he certainly can’t.”
Toning down his rhetoric toward TikTok, Trump has appointed several China supporters and vocal TikTok critics to key Cabinet and government agency positions.
This includes Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio, Under Secretary of State nominee Jacob Helberg, incoming US Ambassador to the United Nations Elise Stefanik and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.
According to Nathan Leamer, a former FCC policy adviser and CEO of Fixed Gear Strategies, it’s possible that Trump will want to use TikTok as a bargaining chip as part of broader negotiations with China.
“With Trump in power, holding China accountable is a whole new ball game,” Leamer said. “TikTok is an arrow in their quiver. Maybe they make a deal to divest CCP. If this platform is separate from the ownership of a totalitarian state then no one is against it.
