TikTok’s CEO meets Donald Trump as it seeks to avert US ban

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TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew met Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, according to two people familiar with the matter, as the popular video app pins its hopes on the president-elect saving it from a looming US ban.

The ByteDance-owned app is expected to be banned for the company’s 170mn US users if it does not divest from its Chinese parent under a law that comes into force on January 19, the day before Trump’s inauguration as president.

The private meeting between the pair comes as TikTok’s attempts to fight the ban in court have thus far fallen short. A US appeals court rejected a challenge to the law and subsequent request to halt it while the company escalates its challenge to the Supreme Court. 

Trump has previously said that he will “save” the platform, in an attempt to preserve “competition” with Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, which he has criticised for allegedly censoring rightwing voices.

Speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump reiterated that sentiment, saying he had a “little bit of a warm spot” for TikTok, citing his overperformance with young voters — who make up the video app’s core user base — in the presidential election earlier this year.

“We’re taking a look at it,” Trump said when asked how he planned to stop next month’s ban on the app. 

TikTok nodded to Trump’s position in a motion on Monday asking that the Supreme Court temporarily block the law.

“There is a reasonable possibility that the new administration will pause enforcement of the act or otherwise seek to mitigate its most severe potential consequences,” TikTok said in the court filing. “It would not be in the interest of anyone — not the parties, the public, or the courts — for the act’s ban on TikTok to take effect only for the new administration to halt its enforcement hours, days, or even weeks later.”

The divest-or-ban law was championed by Joe Biden’s administration on national security grounds, with the Department of Justice arguing the app could be wielded by Beijing for propaganda and espionage purposes given its Chinese parent. It passed with bipartisan support in Congress.

TikTok has deemed the law unconstitutional and argued that a spin-off would be technically “unfeasible” in the law’s timeframe. Beijing has also said it opposes a sale.

Trump has not made clear the mechanisms he would use to avoid a TikTok ban. Some experts note the law allows TikTok to continue operating if the president determines that the app is no longer under Chinese control, speculating that Trump could simply declare this is the case.

US companies and their chiefs have been lining up to meet or court the president-elect, with Meta chief executive Zuckerberg donating $1mn for Trump’s inauguration. Amazon, and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, have both also donated to the event.

Liberal Hollywood has been less eager so far. But Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co-chief executive, will meet Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday.

As head of Netflix’s content businesses, Sarandos is the streaming giant’s most visible face in Hollywood. He and his wife, Nicole Avant, are also prominent Democratic party donors, having raised money in Hollywood for Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who faced Trump in the 2024 election.

Avant, who served as ambassador to the Bahamas under Obama, has had tough words for her fellow Democrats following Harris’s loss to Trump. “The Democratic party needs a reality check,” she told the Hollywood Reporter this month. “People have to regroup.”