Trump admits he has a ‘warm spot’ for TikTok

President-elect Donald Trump says he would like to keep TikTok operating in the United States for at least a little while.

Is Trump going to be TikTok’s savior? The social media platform has been under scrutiny for months in the United States.

Last April, the US Senate passed a law requiring TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to divest the app before January 19, 2025. If the app isn’t sold by then, it will be totally banned in the United States.

TikTok objected to this decision, arguing it’s impeding the people’s right to free speech.

“We believe the court will find the TikTok ban unconstitutional so the over 170 million Americans on our platform can continue to exercise their free speech rights,” TikTok recently said in a statement.

The video platform will have a chance to appeal the Senate’s decision on January 10 before the US Supreme Court.

If TikTok doesn’t know how to persuade the judges, the platform might have one alternative lifeline: Donald Trump.

On Sunday, he told a crowd of conservative supporters in Phoenix, Arizona, that he opposes a potential exit of TikTok from the US market.

“I think we're going to have to start thinking because, you know, we did go on TikTok, and we had a great response with billions of views, billions and billions of views. They brought me a chart, and it was a record, and it was so beautiful to see, and as I looked at it, I said, ‘Maybe we gotta keep this sucker around for a little while,’” President-elect Trump said, according to Reuters.

In addition, Trump said that he has a ‘warm spot’ for TikTok thanks to the success of his presidential campaign on the platform.

President-elect Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew last week at his Mar-a-Lago club, a person familiar with the meeting told CNN. Trump allegedly suggested he might take a different approach with the video platform, but he hasn’t told what that approach might look like.