Trump’s Executive Order Consideration
Just days before a US law to ban or sell TikTok takes effect, President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly mulling an executive order to temporarily suspend the law.
Duration of Suspension
The suspension – lasting 60 or 90 days – will give the Trump administration time to find a buyer for TikTok’s US operations or find another solution. Washington Post reported on Wednesday (January 15).
Information reported on Tuesday that ByteDance owned TikTok is preparing for an immediate shutdown in the US on Sunday (January 19), the day the law takes effect. Trump is scheduled to be inaugurated the next day.
The ban passed with a large bipartisan majority in Congress and was signed into law by President Joe Biden. Last year, Biden gave TikTok an ultimatum: sell the app’s U.S. operations or face a ban from app stores and U.S. web hosting providers.
TikTok says there are 170 million users in the USA.
The president-elect’s position on the TikTok ban has completely changed over the past year. During his first term, Trump issued an executive order decreeing a TikTok ban, which was later challenged in court. After Trump left office, President Joe Biden rescinded the order.
Changing Dynamics of TikTok’s Ownership
However, after joining TikTok during the 2024 presidential race and accumulating 1 million subscribers in one day, the former and future president softened his position and repeatedly vowed to “save TikTok.” Trump now has 14 million subscribers on the platform.
Legal experts have questioned the Trump administration’s ability to delay or relax TikTok legislation through executive orders.
Executive orders “are not magic documents,” said the former Justice Department national security adviser and associate professor of law at the University of Minnesota. Alan Rosenstein told Mail.
“These are just press releases with nicer stationery… TikTok will still be banned and it will still be illegal for Apple and Google to do business with them. But it would make the president’s intention not to enforce the law even more official.”
The central part of the do-not-sell or ban law requires TikTok to be removed from app stores, effectively making Apple and Google the key enforcers of the law. During a hearing on the law last week, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested that Apple and Google would likely not risk non-compliance with the ban.
Observers say TikTok’s latest attempt to overturn the law in the Supreme Court is unlikely to succeed. Last year, a federal court rejected TikTok’s argument that the law violated the First Amendment (freedom of speech) rights of TikTok’s American users.
As TikTok’s closure approaches, there has been much speculation about potential buyers. Bloomberg reported on Tuesday (January 14) that Chinese officials are considering selling the app to Elon Musk, the owner of X/Twitter. However, TikTok denied this, calling the report “pure fiction.”
It was also reported that Kevin O’Leary, a celebrity businessman known for his appearances on reality television show Shark Tank, is preparing a bid for TikTok alongside former LA Dodgers owner Frank McCourt. A person “familiar with TikTok’s thinking” said O’Leary’s proposal is “unfortunate” and a “fairy tale,” according to Mail.
“TikTok will still be banned and it will still be illegal for Apple and Google to do business with them. But it would make the president’s intention not to enforce the law even more official.”
Alan Rosenstein, University of Minnesota Law School
Other ideas proposed by Trump allies include reviving Project Texas, Mail reported. This is a package of reforms proposed by TikTok several years ago that would give the US access to TikTok’s programs and hiring decisions with veto power. The Biden administration rejected the proposal, citing that it would not address national security concerns.
There is also speculation that Trump may direct his attorney general not to enforce the law. During his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday (Jan. 15), Trump’s nominee for attorney general Pam Bondi did not indicate whether it would enforce the TikTok ban, citing ongoing litigation over the law, according to USA Today reported.
Mail has also reported that some within Trump’s circle have suggested spinning off parts of TikTok and selling them to meet a provision of the law that would allow TikTok to avoid a ban through a “qualified asset sale,” a broad term that provides the president with leeway in interpretation.
As tensions between China and Western countries rise—partly due to Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods during his first term—lawmakers in the U.S. and elsewhere are increasingly concerned about TikTok’s national security implications. Parent company ByteDance, which is based in China, is required to cooperate with Chinese intelligence agencies.
Despite these concerns, TikTok CEO Tzu Chu Show has consistently maintained that US user data is not shared with the Chinese government.
As TikTok prepares to shut down in the US, Trump mulls executive order to keep it running (report)
