Trump said he would consider an executive order to reverse the ban on TikTok

President-elect Donald J. Trump is considering an executive order to allow TikTok to continue operating despite the legal ban until a new owner is found, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The potential executive order, previously reported by The Washington Post, is under consideration because TikTok faces a deadline on Sunday to be banned in the United States unless it finds a new owner. The popular video sharing app is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company. Republicans have said for years that they see the app, which has been downloaded from millions of smartphones, as a national security threat. It has become a rare bipartisan issue in Congress.

If the Supreme Court upholds the law, which bans the app unless ByteDance sells it to a non-Chinese company, special treatment from Mr Trump may be the only way TikTok can continue to operate in the US in the near future. . The law requires app store operators like Apple and Google and cloud computing providers to stop distributing TikTok in the United States.

The executive order could try to direct the government not to implement the law or delay implementation to complete the deal, a move that previous presidents have used to challenge the law. It’s unclear whether the executive order will survive legal challenges or convince app stores and cloud computing companies to take action that could subject them to hefty fines.

Alan Z. Rozenshtein, a former Department of Justice national security adviser and professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, said that we should “live with average rock salt” the executive order. Such an order is not law, he said, and will not legally change the law passed by Congress and signed by President Biden.

While there is speculation that the app would still work if it had been taken down, the law also affects internet hosting companies like Oracle and other cloud computing providers, and it is unclear whether video playback time and app functionality.

A person close to Mr Trump’s team said some of his aides had discussed buying TikTok but did not provide details. Mr. Biden, whose term ends on Monday, a day after the ban was imposed, is also under pressure to find ways to save the enforcement.

The New York Times reported last Wednesday that TikTok’s chief executive, Shou Chew, is expected to attend Mr. Trump’s inauguration on Monday and has been given a seat at the podium. TikTok declined to comment.

Mr. Chew is expected to join other tech executives on the platform: Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Meta; Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon; Elon Musk, Mr. Trump’s megadonor; and Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, who personally gave 1 million dollars to the inauguration committee.

Mr Trump had previously supported banning TikTok but publicly changed his position last year, shortly after meeting with Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor who owns a majority stake in ByteDance.

Mr. Trump said they did not discuss the company. But Mr. Yass helped found the trading company Susquehanna International Group and is one of the biggest supporters of the conservative group Club for Growth. The group has hired people with ties to Mr. Trump, such as Kellyanne Conway, his former top adviser, and Republican adviser David Urban, to woo TikTok in Washington.

TikTok also worked to gain access to the Trump team through Tony Sayegh, who was a Treasury official during Mr. Trump’s first administration and now heads public affairs for of Susquehanna.

Mr. Sayegh has ties to the Trump family and was a big part of the campaign’s decision to join TikTok this summer. Several family members, including Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Kai Trump, the president-elect’s grandson, also joined the app.

Mr. Trump’s interest in TikTok is not due to his advisers. He came to watch videos of him on stage, and his advisers credited him with helping him broaden his reach to a new type of voter during the campaign.

Any move Mr. Trump might make on TikTok is difficult. The law gives the president the ability to extend the sale deadline unless there is “significant progress” in the deal that would put the company in the hands of non-Chinese owners.

It also requires that the contract be completed within 90 days of the extension. It is not clear how the extension would work if Mr. Trump tries to impose it after the ban is implemented.

TikTok has maintained during a court challenge to the law that such sales cannot be made in part because of the time limit. A group led by billionaire Frank McCourt has been bidding to buy the app – albeit without a powerful algorithm – in recent months.

Mr. Trump could try to work around the law by ordering the government not to enforce it.

But app store operators and cloud computing providers may need more than a soft assurance from Mr. Trump that he won’t punish them if they don’t implement the ban, said Ryan Calo, a professor at the University of Washington School of Economics. of Law. The potential legal liability for companies that violate the law is significant: Penalties are up to $5,000 for each person who can use TikTok when the ban takes effect.

“You can have a policy of not enforcing this ban,” said Mr. Calo, who is part of a group of teachers who urged the Supreme Court to overturn the TikTok law. “But I think a conservative company might be like, ‘OK, you’re not going to implement it. But it’s in the book, and you can apply it at any time.’ “

The choice of Mr. Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, declined to say whether she would enforce the law.

“I can’t talk about the trial,” he said at a Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday. “But I will talk to all the prosecutors who are handling the case.”

Mr. Trump has a third option: appeal to Congress to reverse the policy he fully approved with bipartisan support last year.

“Congress can repeal it at any time,” Mr. Calo said.

On Thursday, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said on the Senate floor that he was concerned about the possible ban on TikTok.

“It is clear that we need more time to find American buyers and not disrupt the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans, of many activists who have built a good network of followers,” he said. He added that he had made those views clear to the Biden administration and accused Republicans of blocking a bill that would have extended the ban by 270 days.

A White House official said on Thursday that the administration’s view is that TikTok should work with American owners. Due to the timing of the ban – occurring during the holiday weekend before the inauguration – it will be up to the next government to implement the law, officials said.

Catie Edmondson contributed to the report.