The incoming president is nothing if not unpredictable. As we reported a little over a week ago, the U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear an argument from ByteDance, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-associated parent company of worldwide social media platform, TikTok, that the company should not be forced by the legislative branch to sell TikTok on or before Jan. 19, 2025–or suffer a total ban here.
As I wrote on Dec. 18, there was also this meeting of the minds at Mar-a-Lago, the week before Christmas:
President-elect Donald Trump also met with the CEO of TikTok on Monday. During his remarks, Trump heaped praise on TikTok for helping him win in November’s presidential election, saying he “[has] a warm spot in [his] heart” for the site
BACKGROUND:
HUGE: The Supreme Court Announces Whether It Will Take Up Ban After TikTok Requested Emergency Review
On Friday, Donald Trump filed a last-minute amicus brief with the high court, asking the justices to issue a stay in the case:
NEWS
President-elect Trump has filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in the TikTok matter.
He has asked the court to issue a stay.
If the court doesn’t issue a stay and TikTok’s parent company fails to find a buyer, TikTok will be banned in the United States starting… pic.twitter.com/vep27LcyTq
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) December 27, 2024
In case you can’t see the post, it reads:
NEWS
President-elect Trump has filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in the TikTok matter.
He has asked the court to issue a stay.
If the court doesn’t issue a stay and TikTok’s parent company fails to find a buyer, TikTok will be banned in the United States starting on January 19.
In the filing, which does not take a side in the case before SCOTUS, Trump states that while he personally “opposes banning TikTok in the United States at this juncture,” he wants to “resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office.”
Some things to consider: Take a look at the date on this story “FCC Commish Calls for US to Ban TikTok on National Security Grounds,” Nov. 1, 2022; Trump nominee as incoming FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, sounded a stark warning then on the dangers of TikTok for our national security.
This is a saga that has been going on since Trump’s first term behind the Resolute Desk too. Even though I don’t even play a lawyer on social media, my guess is it would be fairly easy for the high court to push back making a decision in the wake of the president-elect’s overwhelming victory in November. Then again, the court might weigh the fact that part of another branch of our government (Congress) has clearly outlined this law should proceed. It might be interfering on their part, in other words.
You can read the full amicus brief here.
As this is a developing story, with a deadline just weeks away, RedState will bring you the latest when circumstances warrant it.
