President-elect Donald Trump called on Google and Apple to keep TikTok in their app stores and pledged to “issue an executive order on Monday to extend the time period before the law’s bans take effect.” He also proposed a “50% ownership position” for the US government.
“I ask companies not to let TikTok remain in the dark!” Trump began a message posted on social media. “I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the time period before the law’s prohibitions go into effect, so we can reach an agreement to protect our national security. The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped prevent TikTok from disappearing before my order.”
“Americans deserve to see our exciting inauguration on Monday, as well as other events and conversations.”
“I would like the United States to have a 50% stake in a joint venture,” Trump continued. “By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands, and allow it to thrive. Without US approval, there is no Tik Tok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, perhaps trillions.”
“Therefore, my initial idea is a joint venture between the current owners and/or the new owners whereby the United States obtains 50% ownership in a joint venture created between the US and whatever purchase we choose,” he concluded.
Trump signed an executive order to sanction the app in 2020, an effort to pressure ByteDance to sell its US operations to an American company.
“When it comes to TikTok, we will ban them in the United States,” Trump told reporters in July 2020. “I have that authority. “I can do it with an executive order or that.” ByteDance threatened to sue after Trump signed the executive order banning the app in the United States.
In his order, Trump threatened to impose restrictions on the owners of WeChat and TikTok and demanded that they sell the apps’ American businesses to American companies. Trump cited “the national emergency regarding the information and communications technology and services supply chain.”
President Biden revoked Trump’s sanctions in 2021 and even joined the platform in 2024. Last year, Congress passed a law banning enforcement in the United States, apparently due to concerns about espionage. In December, ByteDance filed an emergency injunction to temporarily halt the ban, but the Supreme Court ultimately upheld the decision.
In January, the Biden Administration signaled plans to leave the final fate of TikTok in the hands of the incoming Trump Administration.
