TikTok ban will be Trump’s first test as dealmaker-in-chief

The Supreme Court did not stop TikTok’s execution at the last moment.

If the popular social media site is to continue to operate in the US, it will not be judges who save it but politicians or businessmen.

And politicians — pressing to balance national concerns about China with TikTok’s huge American user base — are paying attention. This also includes the incoming president, who is both a politician and businessman.

Soon after the top court’s decision, newly elected President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social saying that he will review the situation, but everyone should respect the Supreme Court’s decision.

He said, “My decision on TikTok will be in the not too distant future, but I should have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!”

Trump’s legal team had already considered it during the Supreme Court’s consideration of the case, and had asked the justices to delay a decision to give them time to find a solution.

“President Trump alone has the entire dealmaking expertise, electoral mandate, and political will to negotiate a solution to save the platform,” the brief said.

He didn’t get his wish, but several Trump allies have raised the possibility of the president issuing an executive order to delay implementation of the ban on Monday afternoon. Trump also spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping and the issue of TikTok came up.

Trump is adding China hawks like Marco Rubio and Michael Waltz to his foreign policy team — who represent a popular view on the right that the Chinese Communists are more than an economic rival, they are a geopolitical rival.

But Trump also spent the last year campaigning for the support of social media influencers — and their young followers — many of whom are TikTok devotees.

If the incoming president can ultimately find a way to satisfy national security concerns while keeping TikTok operational in the US, it would give him an opportunity to score an early political victory in his second term and be celebrated by TikTok’s loyal users.

There is some irony in this, since it was conservatives – including Trump – who first supported the ban.

The Biden administration, for its part, seemed happy to put the TikTok situation in the lap of the incoming president.

A statement was immediately released reacting to the court’s decision, emphasizing that the goal of the law is not to ban TikTok, but to force its sale to US ownership. However, as predicted, the outgoing Democratic president decided to impose sanctions on Donald Trump, who will become president on Monday afternoon.

The Supreme Court, in its unsigned opinion without any dissent, avoided considering these types of political calculations. The justices sided with a lower court that upheld the constitutionality of a law that could ban the popular social media service if it is not sold by midnight Sunday.

While the court’s opinion is narrow – the judge acknowledged the time pressure on them to issue this decision – it firmly establishes that the constitutional protections of free speech enshrined in the First Amendment of the US Constitution do not save TikTok.

In fact, the judges found that the TikTok ban, which Congress justified on the grounds of protecting national security by preventing an adversary from collecting large amounts of data on millions of American users, was clearer than laws that directly regulate speech. There was less hurdles to overcome. Material.

The court sidestepped other thorny issues — such as whether concerns about Chinese influence over TikTok’s algorithm justify a ban. But it is expected that this issue will come up in future policy debates in Congress.

With the court’s decision, TikTok has exhausted its last legal recourse to prevent the ban from taking effect. However, for Trump, the TikTok ban is his first presidential challenge – but also his first political opportunity.