Donald Trump has once again indicated that he might save TikTok, saying that he wants to keep the app around “for a little while.”
On Dec. 22, during Turning Point’s annual AmericaFest, Trump recounted how his team utilized the app during the recent election.
We’re going to have to start thinking because, you know, we did go on TikTok, and we had a great response with billions of views, billions and billions of views,” he said, according to Reuters.
“They brought me a chart, and it was a record, and it was so beautiful to see, and as I looked at it, I said, ‘Maybe we gotta keep this sucker around for a little while.’”
This comes after TikTok CEO Shou Chew visited Trump on Dec. 16, after which he admitted he has a “warm spot” for the app.
The story so far
On Jan. 19, TikTok is set to be banned unless it cuts ties with its China-based parent company, ByteDance. While TikTok has tried to contest this, the platform has, so far, been unsuccessful.
After the federal appeal court ruled against both TikTok’s case and its request to freeze the impending ban, the platform took its case to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, in turn, said that it would hear TikTok’s arguments on Jan. 10.
To complicate things further, Trump is also due to be inaugurated on Jan. 20 — so we’ll find out soon enough whether his actions match his words.
