President-elect Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to allow him to negotiate a deal to save TikTok from an imminent ban in the United States.
in a amicus curiae brief In a court filing, Trump says he “seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office” and that “he alone possesses the consummate experience in negotiating deals, electoral mandate and the political will to negotiate a resolution.” to save the platform.”
Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments that a bill passed by Congress banning TikTok on national security grounds violates the First Amendment. The bill gives the president broad latitude to delay its implementation if he moves toward an agreement that ensures TikTok is not fully controlled by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
But the deadline for that determination is Jan. 19, one day before Trump is sworn in.
In his Supreme Court filing, Trump calls for a suspension of the Jan. 19 deadline for the bill, arguing that the deal he would negotiate “would avoid the need for this Court to decide the historically challenging First Amendment issue presented here in the current and highly accelerated process.” base.”
It does not offer details on what such a deal would look like, although it would likely involve ByteDance selling a significant portion of its ownership in TikTok to a US company.
Trump maintains that having more than 14 million followers on TikTok, along with owning Truth Social, gives him a unique ability to “assess the importance of TikTok as a unique medium for free expression, including core political speech.” He also cites the temporary ban of Elon Musk’s X in Brazil as an example of “the historic dangers posed” by a government banning a social media platform.
However, there is still a lot of political pressure to impose a ban on TikTok. A group of senators and congressmen, including Mitch McConnell and Ro Khanna, petitions submitted on Fridayalong with 22 US states and former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, urged the Supreme Court to reject TikTok’s appeal.