The CEO plans to attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration and has received an invitation to take a place of honor at the podium where former presidents, family members and other important guests traditionally sit, two sources familiar with the plans said Wednesday. -Friday (15).
The invitation to CEO Shou Chew was sent by the Trump Inaugural Committee, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss Monday’s inauguration. , including Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, at the event; Jeff Bezos was also invited.
TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, declined to comment.
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Trump’s support for TikTok represents a surprising turnaround from 2020, when he tried during his first term to block the app in the United States and force its sale to American companies. He approached the company last year, especially after he and his campaign gained popularity on TikTok during last year’s election.
The Trump administration’s embrace of Chew is significant given that the app is on the brink of extinction in the United States. Congress passed a law last year stating that ByteDance would have to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese company or face a ban in the United States starting Sunday, citing national security concerns. TikTok has been betting for almost a year that it can defeat the law in court. More recently, the company has been seeking a deal with the Trump administration to avoid an outright sale. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the law in the coming days.
Trump has promised to save the app in the United States as soon as he takes office on Monday, although his options for doing so are limited. Legal experts said the area where Trump could most likely intervene would involve a part of the law that gives the president the authority to determine whether ByteDance has done enough to remove TikTok from Chinese control.
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Trump publicly changed his stance on TikTok last year, shortly after meeting with Jeff Yass, a Republican mega-donor who owns a significant stake in ByteDance. Trump said they didn’t talk about the company. However, Yass helped found the trading company Susquehanna International Group and is one of the biggest supporters of the anti-tax lobby group Club for Growth. He hired Kellyanne Conway, a former senior adviser to Trump, to lobby for TikTok in Washington.
Trump has also spoken multiple times about how content related to him and his campaign has performed well on TikTok. His advisors saw value in engaging with the site.
Trump on Dec. 16 at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, according to an official source familiar with the matter. At the time of that meeting, TikTok officials told people close to Trump, and possibly the president-elect himself, that Trump should be the one to decide TikTok’s fate, according to two people with knowledge of contacts between the two sides, who spoke under the condition of anonymity. Soon after, Trump told reporters that he had “special attention” for TikTok and would look into the issue.
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