President-elect Donald Trump tried to ban TikTok during his first presidential term but is now open to keeping the social media app around ahead of a pending January ban.
What Happened: Similar to a reversal of opinion on cryptocurrency, Trump has had a change of heart about banning TikTok from the United States.
On Sunday, Trump shared that he supports TikTok remaining operational in the United States despite a pending ban that could take place in the U.S. on Jan 19, the day before he is inaugurated as president once again.
"I think 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," Trump said at AmericaFest over the weekend, as reported by Reuters.
Trump said his team showed him a chart of his TikTok engagement and it was a record.
"I said, ‘Maybe we gotta keep this sucker around for a little while.'"
The comments from Trump come after he recently met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at Mar-A-Lago and, on the same day, said he had a "warm spot" for the social media app.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on Jan. 10 about the TikTok ban and whether to put the ban on hold.
The Justice Department has argued that TikTok's Chinese control is a national security threat in America. Trump echoed this opinion during his last presidency.
"Action must be taken to address the threat posed by one mobile application in particular, TikTok," Trump said.
Trump previously said that the location tracking of federal employees and contractors, censored information, and disinformation from TikTok were the reasons for the ban.
"The United States must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security," Trump previously said.
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Change of Opinion: This isn't the first time Trump has spoken positively about TikTok or against the ban this year.
Trump has stated previously that a potential ban on TikTok could have a positive impact on Meta Platforms META, a company he has often battled against.
"If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business," Trump said earlier this year of Meta Platforms and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
One reason for the potential reversal of his stance on TikTok could be the support of Republican megadonor Jeff Yass, who owns 15% of ByteDance.
A report from Politico featured the potential of Trump looking for a way to benefit from opposing the TikTok ban.
“It’s a mirror image of 2020,” former technology company spokesperson Nu Wexler told Politico. “He tried to ban TikTok and then figured out that there was an out — that he could take care of a donor — and flipped on it.”
The report highlighted Trump’s order for ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. arm. The company that would have benefitted from the move was Oracle Corp ORCL, which was co-founded by Trump donor Larry Ellison. Oracle CEO Safra Catz also donated to the Trump campaign for the 2020 election.
Yass is a donor to Club for Growth, a conservative group that supported Trump for the 2024 presidential election. Club for Growth is using former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway to fight Congress’s plan to ban TikTok.
“When it comes to Donald Trump, follow the money,” Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told Politico of Trump’s TikTok reversal.
Trump acknowledged in an interview with CNBC that he met with Yass but the two did not talk about TikTok or ByteDance.
While the reversal of opinion on banning TikTok could have more to do with being outspoken on Meta Platforms and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the timing of the reversal after meeting with Yass drew scrutiny.
The report also came after a similar reversal by Trump in regards to the beer brand Bud Light and its parent company, Anheuser-Busch InBev.
The positive comments on the beer company came ahead of a fundraiser for the former president hosted by top Anheuser-Busch lobbyist Jeff Miller.
Trump's change of heart on TikTok and Bud Light coincided with key events or meetings involving major Republican donors.
Another factor in the positive commentary on TikTok could be Trump's granddaughter, Kai Trump. The eldest grandchild of Donald Trump and oldest child of Donald Trump Jr. has built a sizable following on TikTok with 1.3 million followers.
Kai Trump regularly shares golf videos on TikTok along with videos of her grandfather, which have generated millions of views. While it remains to be seen how Trump can stop the ban from happening, upsetting his own granddaughter by not fighting to keep TikTok could be another consideration in speaking positively of the app.
Trump's own TikTok, which launched in June 2024, has 14.7 million followers and was mostly used during the 2024 election cycle.
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This article was previously published by Benzinga and has been updated.
Photo: Shutterstock
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