President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that he has a “warm spot” in his heart for TikTok, suggesting that he may be open to stopping a potential ban of the social media app that has raised national security concerns due to its Chinese ownership.
“I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Mr. Trump said during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, adding that he won the youth vote by 34 points and “there are those that say that TikTok had something to do with it.”
When pressed about whether he would stop the ban, which is scheduled to go into effect next month when he takes office, Mr. Trump said he would “take a look.”
Mr. Trump also said that his interviews with popular podcast hosts such as Joe Rogan contributed to his success among younger voters. He credited his son, Baron Trump, a college freshman at New York University, with recommending which podcasts to do sit-down interviews.
TikTok is facing a ban on U.S. networks and app stores as soon as Jan. 19. Congress passed a law in April requiring the app’s China-based parent company ByteDance to divest its holdings within 270 days or face a ban. A federal appeals court upheld the law earlier this month, ruling that it doesn’t violate the First Amendment, which TikTok has claimed.
Tik Tok has asked the appeals court to put the law on hold so it could pursue an appeal to the Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court rejected that request on Friday.
The U.S. has said TikTok poses a national security risk because its owner could be coerced by Chinese authorities to hand over U.S. user data or manipulate content on the platform for Beijing’s interests.
Mr. Trump repeatedly dodged questions about the TikTok ban while on the campaign trail. He said that he opposed the idea that the Chinese parent had to divest its holdings for the app to continue in the U.S. and said he would “save” it, but he did not offer a concrete plan to do so.
“I can’t totally hate it. It was very effective,” Mr. Trump said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this month. “But I will say this, if you do do that, something else is going to come along and take its place and maybe that’s not fair.”
“I’m going to try and make it so that other companies don’t become an even bigger monopoly,” he added.
— This story is based in part on wire-service reports.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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