Donald Trump is now fighting to save TikTok after learning he is a superstar on the app – and that it contributed to his election victory.
The president-elect has reversed his previous position and vowed to “save” TikTok ahead of its planned shutdown on January 19.
The app will be banned nationwide after Beijing-based owners ByteDance ignored Joe Biden’s ultimatum calling for its sale.
The president signed a law last year requiring the Justice Department to address concerns. The platform is vulnerable to Chinese spies and a potential foghorn for Beijing’s propaganda.
While Trump previously supported a ban, he is now considering an executive order that, once in office, would suspend the order for 60 to 90 days. Washingtonpost reports.
A source told the newspaper that Trump would like to be seen as “making a deal” after the deadline passes.
‘Why would I want to get rid of TikTok?’ Trump said in a Truth Social post this month.
His change of heart is reportedly due to the outpouring of support he received during his White House campaign.
TikToks by the ratings-obsessed Trump and his team have been viewed more than 4 billion times, more than megastar Taylor Swift or political rival Kamala Harris.
Donald Trump is now fighting to save TikTok after learning how much the app earned him during the election

He used Gen-Z Republicans like Jack Fuetterer to increase his engagement with young voters
During the elections, he made extensive use of the online following of young Republicans.
According to an internal review reported by Puck, there was twice as much pro-Trump content on the app than pro-Biden between November 2023 and May 2024.
Trump’s account was created in June and reached three million followers in just 24 hours and has 14 million today.
During his campaign, he was overshadowed by 22-year-old Jack Fuetterrer, whom he dubbed “TikTok Jack,” who captured images to upload to the platform.
His right-hand man Dillon Renfro was given the task of searching the app for trends that team Trump could use. Desert News reports.
“I have a warm place in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said last month.
This is evident from the fact that TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has been invited to attend his inauguration on Monday.

Trump is now considering an executive order that, once in office, would suspend the ban for 60 to 90 days
The Supreme Court is currently weighing TikTok’s challenge to the ban, but is expected to allow the ban to go ahead.
Legal experts have cast doubt on whether an executive order would be enough to overturn the order, which passed Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support.
“TikTok will still be banned, and it will still be illegal for Apple and Google to do business with them. But it will make the president’s intention not to enforce the law that much more official,” said University of Minnesota professor Alan Rozenshtein, a former Justice Department adviser.
Pam Bondi, Trump’s chosen attorney general, has declined to say whether she will commit to enforcing the law.
The order requires distributors like Apple and Google to stop offering TikTok in their app stores, and requires service providers like Oracle to withhold the infrastructure that runs the app.
Companies that violate these terms may be subject to a fine of $5,000 per user using TikTok.
Sunday is the deadline for TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance, to sell its U.S. assets or be removed from U.S. app stores over concerns about the app’s ties to the communist Chinese government.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has been invited to Trump’s inauguration, which will take place the day after the ban takes effect
Under that ban, Americans would still be able to use the app, but new downloads would be blocked and the software would slowly deteriorate over time due to a lack of updates.
Sources revealed on Wednesday that TikTok is threatening to close its app to US users next Sunday if a federal ban takes effect.
During the lockdown, people who try to open the app will see a pop-up message directing them to a website with information about the ban.
The company also plans to give users the option to download all their data so they can capture their personal information, they said.
About 150 million Americans use TikTok – almost half the population.
While TikTok is extremely popular among younger users and members of Gen-Z, a third of adults in the US also use the app.