President-elect Donald Trump has asked Google and Apple to keep TikTok in their app stores and pledged to “issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect.” He also proposed a “50% ownership position” for the U.S. government.
“I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark!” Trump began a message posted on social media. “I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security. The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark 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% ownership position in a joint venture,” Trump continued. “By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to say up. Without U.S. approval, there is no Tik Tok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions.”
“Therefore, my initial thought is a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the U.S. gets a 50% ownership in a joint venture set up between the U.S. and whichever purchase we so choose,” he concluded.
Trump signed an executive order to sanction the app in 2020, an effort to pressure ByteDance to sell its U.S. operations to an American company.
“As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from 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 that banned the app in the United States.
In his order, Trump threatened restrictions for the owners of WeChat and TikTok and demanded they sell the apps’ U.S. businesses to American companies. Trump cited “the national emergency with respect to 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 the app in the U.S., ostensibly due to concerns about espionage. In December ByteDance filed an emergency injunction to halt the ban temporarily but the Supreme Court ultimately upheld the decision.
In January the Biden Administration signaled plans to leave the ultimate fate of TikTok up to the incoming Trump Administration.
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