Donald Trump ‘Will Deliver’ on Promise to Stop TikTok Ban
President-elect Donald Trump’s team says “he will deliver” on his promise to save TikTok and prevent its threatened U.S. ban in two and half months.
In April, President Biden signed a law that gave TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance 90 days to sell the video app or face a total ban in the U.S.
The law means that TikTok, which is used by 170 million Americans, could be banned across the U.S. as soon as January 19 — unless the video app divests from its Beijing-based parent company.
However, there is speculation that President-elect Donald Trump — who tried to ban TikTok the last time he was in the White House — may ignore the January deadline and keep the app operating as usual in the U.S.
During his presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly pledged to save the app, including in a video posted on Truth Social in September.
According to reports by multiple news outlets, Trump’s team has appeared to confirm that the President will make good on his promises and stop TikTok’s ban.
When asked about whether Trump would prevent a TikTok ban in the United States, Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance’s transition team, tells The New York Times that the President-elect would see his promise through.
“The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin, giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail,” Leavitt says in a statement. “He will deliver.”
Meanwhile former Trump adviser and campaign manager Kellyanne Conway tells The Washington Post that Trump “appreciates the breadth and reach of TikTok” and that there are “many ways to hold China to account outside alienating 180 million U.S. users each month.”
The Washington Post also cited three anonymous Trump aides who said they expect him to intervene in the app’s looming ban — that will happen if TikTok loses a court case that’s currently underway in Washington.
TikTok executives are also hopeful that the Trump administration will be friendly to the platform, according to a report in The Information last week.
However, The New York Times reports that Trump can’t repeal a law without Congress, and TikTok could lose its appeals in court, so there’s still a chance a TikTok ban might go into effect.
But equally, Trump could simply refuse to enforce the TikTok ban, or otherwise make good on his pledge to leave the company alone.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
