Trump vows to save TikTok as 2 GOP senators dig in on ban

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump is poised to throw TikTok a lifeline, promising to extend the deadline on a sell-or-be-banned law that temporarily shut down the popular social media app over the weekend.

Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social that he would sign an executive order to “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect.” The law, signed by President Joe Biden, passed Congress with bipartisan majorities who asserted that the app posed national security risks to the United States.

At the same time, at least two Republican senators are pushing back against the idea of an extension, saying it raises legal ramifications for companies that host the app, while some Democrats who voted to ban it are now in favor of a delay.

The law directs TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance Ltd., to divest its stake to an American entity or face a ban that started Sunday. The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the law in a unanimous decision, ruling that it didn’t violate free-speech rights.

In his social media post, Trump also floated the idea of an American entity holding an equal stake in the app with its Chinese owner.

“I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture,” Trump said in the post. “By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to [stay] up. Without U.S. approval, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars — maybe trillions.”

Trump earlier said he had spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday and discussed TikTok ownership in addition to other topics.

It’s unclear if ByteDance has any interest in such an equal partnership. The company has previously said it would not part with TikTok’s proprietary algorithm if it’s forced to sell to an American company.

The app started to go dark for its 170 million U.S. users before Trump said he would intervene. After Trump’s social media post, TikTok began restoring services with the message, “TikTok is back in the U.S. thanks to efforts taken by President Trump.” But as of Monday morning, the app is not available for download on Apple or Google, meaning new users don’t have access.

No political consensus

Trump’s promise of an extension doesn’t make for an easy political divide. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who chairs the Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a joint statement that there was no legal basis for such an extension.

“We commend Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft for following the law and halting operations with ByteDance and TikTok, and we encourage other companies to do the same,” the two lawmakers said on Sunday, referring to the steps taken by the tech companies to halt support for TikTok hours after the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the ban.

“The law, after all, risks ruinous bankruptcy for any company who violates it. Now that the law has taken effect, there’s no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’ of its effective date,” they said. “For TikTok to come back online in the future, ByteDance must agree to a sale that satisfies the law’s qualified-divestiture requirements by severing all ties between TikTok and Communist China. Only then will Americans be protected from the grave threat posed to their privacy and security by a communist-controlled TikTok.”

Cotton reiterated the message after TikTok thanked Trump for intervening.

“Any company that hosts, distributes, services, or otherwise facilitates communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars of ruinous liability under the law, not just from DOJ, but also under securities law, shareholder lawsuits, and state AGs,” Cotton wrote on X. “Think about it.”

Trump, who initially proposed banning TikTok in 2020 during his first term, first signaled opposition to the ban least year. That switch happened after Trump met with billionaire hedge fund investor Jeff Yass, whose fund Susquehanna International Group LLP has a more than $30 billion stake in ByteDance, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time.

A significant portion of TikTok’s 170 million users depend on the app for their livelihoods, prompting them to mount a campaign against a ban.

That may have pushed some Democrats to backpedal on the issue, including several who have been scathing in their criticisms of social media apps and their influence on young people.

‘Better ways’

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., on Friday sought to find a way for TikTok to continue operating in the United States.

Hours before the Supreme Court’s ruling, Schumer said that “everyone — the Biden administration, the incoming Trump administration, even the Supreme Court — should continue working to find a way [to get] an American buyer for TikTok, so we can both free the app from any influence and control from the Chinese Communist Party, and keep TikTok going, which will preserve the jobs of millions of creators.”

Earlier Schumer said he spoke with Biden asking him to grant a 90-day extension for the app. Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., also wrote to Biden calling on him to grant an extension. Biden declined to do so.

All four Democratic senators voted in favor of the TikTok ban as part of a larger package of measures that included $95 billion in aid to Ukraine. Biden signed the measure into law last April.

A group of Democratic lawmakers including Rep. Ro Khanna of California, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Markey and Booker introduced legislation that would provide a 270-day extension to TikTok, pushing the Jan. 19 deadline by an additional nine months.

The forced divestiture of TikTok would likely result in Trump or his tech industry backers “to scoop up a massive social media company and turn it into another partisan mouthpiece,” Wyden said in a statement. “Extending the deadline to sell TikTok will allow Congress to consider better ways to mitigate threats from China, courts to review the law, and additional bidders to make proposals to acquire TikTok with more time for public scrutiny.”

Others are pushing for the company to adhere to the provisions in the law. It allows a 90-day extension to be granted by the president if the company is engaged in a good faith effort to divest its ownership and a deal is likely to close within the extension period. ByteDance hasn’t said if it launched any effort to sell.

“ByteDance needs to pick up the phone and answer a call from any number of suitors and bidders for the company, and then seek an extension of the law,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., a co-author of the TikTok legislation, told NBC News’ “Meet the Press NOW” on Thursday. “Under the provisions of the law, that would be the easiest and cleanest way to proceed right now.”