President-elect Donald Trump has filed a request with the Supreme Court to halt the enforcement of a law set to ban TikTok in the United States on January 19 if the app is not sold by its Chinese parent company. The Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case on January 10.
In a communication penned by D. John Sauer, who serves as Trump’s legal representative and has been designated as the president-elect’s choice for U.S. solicitor general, it was stated, “President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute.” The letter continued, “Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case, thus permitting President Trump’s incoming Administration the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case.”
The legal basis of the lawsuit revolves around the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, a bipartisan legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in April. This law mandates TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to offload the platform to an American entity or face a prohibition.
Last month, the Supreme Court agreed to review the case and expedited the schedule for briefs and oral arguments. However, the Court declined TikTok’s plea to pause the ban, leaving merely nine days post oral arguments for a verdict to be reached or the law to be indefinitely blocked.
Trump’s submission to the Court indicates a possibility of negotiating a political settlement prior to a final judicial ruling. Sauer wrote, “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.”
Trump had a meeting with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in December, shortly after expressing his fondness for the app. The Department of Justice and TikTok also submitted briefs in the case, reiterating arguments put forth before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That appellate court upheld the law, affirming that the government’s national security rationale for banning the app, particularly fears about the Chinese government potentially having access to data of American users and influencing content on the platform, was valid.
