KUALA LUMPUR — US President-elect Donald Trump petitioned the Supreme Court on Friday to delay the sale of TikTok by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, or face a nationwide ban.
“In light of the novelty and difficulty of this case, the court should consider staying the statutory deadline to grant more breathing space to address these issues,” Trump’s legal team argued in a brief filed on Friday, as reported by Bernama citing the Anadolu Agency.
The deadline for divestment is Jan 19, one day before Trump’s inauguration.
The move aims to provide the president-elect “the opportunity to pursue a political resolution,” said his team.
Trump was an outspoken critic of the popular social media app during his first term, citing national security concerns.
He alleged that TikTok could be used by China to access US user data or manipulate content on the platform — claims ByteDance and Beijing have consistently denied. His administration pushed for the app’s sale to a US-based company, but that effort faltered.
Trump’s stance appears to have evolved in recent months.
“Now (that) I’m thinking about it, I’m for TikTok, because you need competition. If you don’t have TikTok, you have Facebook and Instagram — and that’s, you know, that’s Zuckerberg,” he said in a recent interview with Bloomberg, referring to Mark Zuckerberg.
The comments highlighted a shift in Trump’s view, aligning him against the monopolistic tendencies of domestic tech companies like Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
The legal brief emphasised that Trump is not taking a stance on the underlying legal arguments.
“President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute,” attorney John Sauer wrote.
“Instead, he respectfully requests that the court consider staying the act’s deadline for divestment … thus permitting President Trump’s incoming Administration the opportunity to pursue a political resolution.” – December 28, 2024