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Many tech leaders and tech companies have paid court to President-elect Donald J. Trump in recent weeks. From Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg to Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, they have visited Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, flattered him on X and donated to his inaugural fund.
But TikTok has taken those methods to the next level.
As the Chinese-owned social app fights a federal law that bans it in the United States unless it is sold, it publicly referenced and then thanked Mr. Trump for his support in statements and in videos since Friday. It even built its flattery right into the app so its 170 million American users could see it:
“As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!,” a pop-up message on Sunday read.
TikTok’s chief executive, Shou Chew, filmed his own thank you video to Mr. Trump last week, even referring to the president’s personal TikTok account. Mr. Chew has also visited Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and has been invited to sit in a position of honor on the dais at Mr. Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
TikTok “will go to any lengths to please the authorities” while facing this ban, said Anupam Chander, a professor of law and technology at Georgetown University and an expert on the global regulation of new technologies.
“TikTok is seeking the president’s favor in these ways because their very existence in this country depends on him,” Mr. Chander said in an interview on Sunday. “He’s their lifeline and so they are making sure that they stay on his good side.”
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Trump may not be able to save the app in the long-term as he has declared. He vowed early Sunday to issue an executive order to give ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, more time to make a sale that would satisfy the law, but it’s not clear if he can extend the timeline now that the law has taken effect — or if he has a sale in mind that would meet the terms of the law. Mr. Trump appears to be committed. Even before his post promising an executive order, he posted to the social media platform Truth Social in all-caps: “SAVE TIKTOK!”
The Biden administration also sought to make it clear this weekend that TikTok did not need to shut down on Sunday to satisfy the law, calling the decision to go dark “a stunt.”
“We have laid out our position clearly and straightforwardly: actions to implement this law will fall to the next administration,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said in a statement.
Mr. Trump’s support for TikTok is relatively new. During his first term, he tried to ban the app in the country unless ByteDance sold it to an American company.
But in March 2024, he flipped his stance, around the time of a meeting with Jeff Yass, a billionaire investor and Republican megadonor who owns a significant share of ByteDance. Mr. Trump has said they did not discuss the company. Mr. Yass helped found the trading firm Susquehanna International Group.
TikTok has also sought a line into Republicans and the Trump campaign through Tony Sayegh, a former Treasury official in Mr. Trump’s administration. Mr. Sayegh, who leads public affairs for Susquehanna, was a core part of the Trump campaign’s decision to join TikTok this summer.
Mr. Trump was an instant hit on TikTok, where he now has over 14 million followers. Several members of his family, including Donald Trump Jr. and his granddaughter Kai Trump, have also joined the app.
