President-elect Donald Trump signaled he could try to stop the ban on TikTok in the U.S. as the deadline looms next month.
‘We’ll take a look at TikTok,’ Trump said in response to a reporter question on Monday while speaking in Mar-a-Lago.
‘I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points,’ the 78-year-old claimed. ‘There are those who say TikTok had something to do with that.’
TikTok needs to move quickly to avoid being banned in the U.S. in mid January if action is not taken.
Earlier this year, Congress passed a law banning TikTok unless its Chinese parent company ByteDance sells its stakes by January 19, 2025.
Lawmakers passed the bill amid concerns that the wildly popular social media app is a national security concern with the collection of Americans’ data.
But some 170 million Americans use the video app.
President-elect Trump speaking at Mar-a-Lago on December 16 said ‘we’ll take a look at TikTok’ when asked about the looming ban on the popular video app in the U.S. if it’s not sold by Chinese-owned ByteDance with the deadline looming next month
If Trump were able to prevent the ban, it would be a major reversal from 2020 when he tried to block the social media app and have it sold to a U.S. company.
But the president-elect changed his stance on allowing TikTok to remain in the U.S. changed in March while he was running for a second term.
On Monday, Trump credited the app for helping him win the 2024 election.
While he did not win the youth vote outright, he made major gains with the voting bloc, which he attributed to the Chinese video app and gave a shoutout to his youngest son Barron.
‘Joe Rogan did and some of the other people that were recommended by my son Barron,’ Trump said.
‘He knew names. I said “who is that? Tell me, who’s that?”‘ Trump recalled.
‘”Dad, you got to be kidding. I can’t believe you don’t know,”‘ the president-elect went on imitating his 18-year-old son.
‘And I did those interviews, and it was sort of cute if you want to know know the truth, but we did them, and that had an impact,’ he said.
‘But TikTok had an impact, and so we’re taking a look at it,’ he said.
President-elect Trump credits his 18-year-old son Barron (left) with helping him make gains in support among young voters in the 2024 election
Congress passed a law banning TikTok if it is not sold by its Chinese parent company. The deadline looms next month
Trump then declared he ‘won youth’ and claimed he was ’35-36 points up with young people.’
‘So I have a little bit of a warm spot in my heart I’ll be honest,’ he said.
Exit polling showed Trump made huge gains from 2020 with young people, but he did not win them outright. He received 43 percent among those 18 to 29 percent compared to Kamala Harris’ 54 percent.
In 2020, he received only 36 percent to President Biden’s 60 percent.
Just months after Trump reversed his stance on TikTok, he launched his own TikTok account in June where he shared numerous videos and clips with influencers amassing some 14 million followers and 107 million video likes.
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals rejected an emergency effort by TikTok to temporarily block the law banning the app while it fights it in court. The move paved the way for the U.S. Supreme Court to potentially decide its fate.
In March reversed his stance on TikTok around the same time he met with Republican megadonor Jeff Yass who owns a share of ByteDance. But Trump said the social media app was not discussed.
The bill banning TikTok unless its Chinese parent company divests passed in April with bipartisan support. President Biden signed it into law soon after.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .