President-elect Trump said Monday he has a “warm place” in his heart for TikTok, as the popular social media app faces a possible ban next month.
Asked if he would work to prevent the ban from going into effect when he takes office, Trump said he would “look at it” and credited his victory in part to TikTok.
“I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” the president-elect said at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, adding, “We won the young people by a 34-point margin. Some people say he was doing something.” Along with that.”
He also pointed to interviews with popular podcast hosts like Joe Rogan as the secret to his success, and said some of his sit-ins during the campaign included interviews with his son, who is a freshman at New York University. He pointed out that it was at the urging of Barron Trump. .
TikTok is set to become a U.S. network as early as January 19 after Congress passed a law in April that would require the app's China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app within 270 days. You could face a ban in the app store.
A federal appeals court upheld the law earlier this month, ruling that it did not violate the First Amendment, as TikTok had argued. TikTok asked the Court of Appeals to put the law on hold while it appeals to the Supreme Court, but the court denied the request on Friday.
A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement: “As we have previously stated, we plan to take this case to the Supreme Court, which has a historic record of protecting Americans' free speech rights. We have a track record.”
“Unless the ban on TikTok is ended, the voices of more than 170 million Americans here in the United States and around the world will be silenced on January 19, 2025,” the spokesperson added.
It remains to be seen what President Trump will do regarding TikTok. During his campaign, he opposed anti-divestment laws and vowed to “save” the app. But he has provided few details about his plans for TikTok post-election.
“I can't completely hate it. It was very effective,” he said on NBC's “Meet the Press” earlier this month. “But I'll tell you this: If you do that, something else will come along and replace it. Maybe that's not fair.”
He added at the time: “We will try to prevent other companies from becoming an even bigger monopoly.”
