The TikTok CEO plans to attend President-elect Donald J. Trump's inauguration and has been invited to sit in a position of honor on the dais, where former presidents, family members and other important guests traditionally sit, two people familiar with The plans were announced on Wednesday.
The invitation to the executive, Shou Chew, came from the Trump Vance Inaugural Committee, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss Monday's inauguration. Chew will join Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk on stage, along with other technology executives at the event, according to two people with knowledge of the planning.
TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, declined to comment.
Trump's support for TikTok marks a surprising change from 2020, when during his first term he attempted to block the app in the United States and force its sale to American companies. He approached the company last year, particularly after he and his campaign gained popularity on TikTok during last year's election.
Trump has repeatedly spoken about how content about him and his campaign has done well on TikTok. His advisers saw value in engaging with the site and said it helped him reach younger voters and those who were tuning out mainstream media.
The Trump administration's embrace of Chew is significant as the app teeters on the brink of death in the United States. Congress passed a law last year that said ByteDance had to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese company or face a ban in the United States starting Jan. 19, citing national security concerns. TikTok has been betting for most of the year that it can defeat the law in court. More recently, another solution has been proposed with the Trump administration to avoid an outright sale. The Supreme Court will rule on the law in the coming days.
Trump has promised to save the app in the United States once he takes office on January 20, although his options to do so are limited. Legal experts have said the area where Trump could likely intervene would involve a part of the law that gives the president the authority to determine whether ByteDance has done enough to remove TikTok from Chinese control.
Trump publicly changed his stance on TikTok last year, shortly after meeting with Jeff Yass, a Republican mega-donor who owns a significant stake in ByteDance. Trump has said they did not discuss the company. But Yass helped found the trading firm Susquehanna International Group and is a major supporter of the anti-tax lobby group Club for Growth. He has hired people with ties to Trump, such as Kellyanne Conway, a former senior adviser to the incoming president and Republican adviser David Urban, to lobby for TikTok in Washington.
Trump met with TikTok executives on Dec. 16 at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, according to an official familiar with the matter. Around the time of that meeting, TikTok officials told people in Trump's orbit, and possibly the president-elect himself, that Trump should be the one to decide TikTok's fate, according to two people with knowledge of contacts between the two. two. parties, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Shortly afterward, Trump told reporters that he had a “warm point” for TikTok and would look into the issue.
