Trump asks Supreme Court to pause law banning TikTok

President-elect Donald Trump filed a brief Friday urging the Supreme Court to stay a law that would ban TikTok the day before his inauguration on Jan. 20 if it is not sold by its Chinese owner ByteDance.

"In light of the novelty and difficulty of this case, the court should consider suspending the legal deadline to provide more breathing space to address these issues," Trump's legal team wrote, to give him "the opportunity to pursue a political resolution."

Trump fiercely opposed TikTok during his first term (2017-2021) and tried in vain to ban the video platform on national security grounds. The Republican expressed concern, echoed by his political rivals, that the Chinese government could access the data of U.S. TikTok users or manipulate what they watch on the social network.

U.S. officials had also expressed alarm over the platform's popularity among young people, claiming that its parent company is in the service of the Chinese government and that the app is used to spread propaganda.

Both ByteDance and the Chinese government have denied these allegations.

Trump called for a U.S. company to buy TikTok and for the government to participate in the sale price. His successor, Democrat Joe Biden, went further: he signed a bill to ban the app for the same reasons.

In the brief filed Friday, Trump's lawyer made clear that the president-elect was taking no position on the legal merits of the current case.

"Instead, he respectfully requests that the court consider suspending the deadline for divestment on January 19, 2025, while considering the merits of this case, thus allowing the incoming Trump Administration the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the disputed issues in the case," wrote lawyer John Sauer.