FOX Business’ Taylor Riggs joins ‘Fox & Friends First’ to discuss President-elect Trump’s relationship with Big Tech, potential investment plans and his plan for the first 100 days.
President-elect Donald Trump carried out a years-long face check on the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, culminating in him taking credit for saving the app on Sunday.
Trump’s first administration initially proposed banning the app or selling it to a non-Chinese owner, but the plan never came to fruition until President Biden took office in 2020. A bipartisan group of lawmakers approved the bill at the time and Biden signed it, setting up the -or-sell ban until January 19.
Up to this point, Trump and other politicians have agreed that TikTok poses a major national security threat because it is owned by ByteDance, a company affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party.
The app went dark for a moment on Sunday because no agreement was reached on the purchase, only Trump stepped in and promised to move the deadline.
President-elect Donald Trump has called for the deadline for TikTok to be banned or sold, which was originally set for January 19, to be pushed back. (Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)
As a result, TikTok’s 170 million US users instead received a message thanking Trump for his efforts to save the app.
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“Welcome back!” read the TikTok message. “Thank you for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the US!”
Earlier on Sunday, Trump wrote on TRUTH Social that he was “asking companies not to let TikTok stay in the dark!” He promised to extend the deadline for the ban or sale by executive order on Monday, though he did not offer details on the extension.
President Biden has allowed legislation to ban or sell TikTok to move forward under his administration. (Reuters)
“By doing this, we’re saving TikTok, keeping it in good hands and letting it do that [stay] up. Without US approval, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions,” Trump wrote. “So my initial thought is a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners with the US getting 50% ownership in a joint venture established between the US and either which purchases we choose.”
Trump’s new endorsement of TikTok came after the company’s CEO, Shou Chew, visited the president-elect at his Mar-a-Lago home in December.
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TikTok later released another statement from its X account, again thanking the new president.
TikTok welcomed users back to the social media platform after President-elect Trump vowed to push through an executive order delaying the ban. (Reuters / Reuters photos)
“We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will not face any penalties for providing TikTok to more than 170 million Americans and enabling more than 7 million small businesses to thrive,” the statement said. “It’s a strong stance for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that will keep TikTok in the United States.”
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Despite the extension, ByteDance has repeatedly refused offers to sell the application. The company has not weighed in on whether it would support shared ownership like the one Trump described.
Fox Business’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
