Can Trump Prevent a TikTok Ban? His Team Says He Will Deliver

TikTok, the Chinese-owned video app set to be banned in the United States in two and a half months, is hoping that President-elect Donald J.Trump will find a way to rescue it after a smattering of promises to that effect on the campaign trail this year.Mr.

Trump’s team says he will “deliver” on those promises — though the details are hazy.“The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin, giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Mr.Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance’s transition team, said in a statement.

“He will deliver.”Mr.Trump’s support for TikTok would be a stunning reversal from 2020, when he tried to block the app in the United States and force its sale to American companies because of its ownership by ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant.TikTok, which has 170 million U.S.

users, has faced a possible ban since a new law was signed in April.The law says that the app must be sold to a non-Chinese company by Jan.

19 — a day before Mr.Trump’s inauguration — or face a ban in the United States.The company has challenged the law in courts in something of a Hail Mary, saying that a sale is impossible, partly because of restrictions from the Chinese government, and that a subsequent ban would represent an unconstitutional breach of the First Amendment.But the law passed with wide bipartisan support, and many experts believe a federal court in Washington will side with the U.S.

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