Many tech leaders and companies have courted President-elect Donald J. Trump in recent weeks. From Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, they visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago, fawned over him on X and donated to his inaugural fund.
But TikTok has taken these 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 has publicly referenced and then thanked Trump for his support in statements and videos since Friday. He even embedded his flattery directly into the app so his 170 million American users could see it:
“As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok has returned to the United States!,” read a pop-up message on Sunday.
TikTok CEO Shou Chew filmed his own video thanking Trump last week, also referencing the president’s personal TikTok account. Mr. Chew also visited Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago and was invited to sit in a position of honor on stage during Mr. Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
TikTok will “do everything to please the authorities” in the face of 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 courting the president’s favor in these ways because their very existence in this country depends on him,” Chander said in an interview Sunday. “He is their lifeline and so they are making sure to 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 said. He promised to issue an executive order on Sunday to give ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, more time to make a sale that satisfies the law, but it’s unclear whether he can extend the timeline now that the law has taken effect — or whether he has in mind a sale that respects the terms of the law. Mr. Trump appears to be busy. Even before his post promising an executive order, he posted on the social media platform Truth Social in all caps: “SAVE TIKTOK!”
The Biden administration also sought to make clear this weekend that TikTok did not need to shut down on Sunday to comply with the law, calling the decision to go dark “a stunt.”
“We have set out our position clearly and directly: actions to implement this law will be up to the next administration,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
Trump’s support for TikTok is relatively new. During his first term, he sought to ban the app in the country unless ByteDance sold it to an American company.
But in March 2024, he changed his position, around the time of a meeting with Jeff Yass, a billionaire investor and Republican megadonor who owns a significant stake in ByteDance. Mr. Trump said they did not discuss the company. Mr. Yass helped found the trading firm Susquehanna International Group.
TikTok also sought a connection to Republicans and the Trump campaign through Tony Sayegh, a former Treasury official in the Trump administration. Mr. Sayegh, who leads public affairs for Susquehanna, was a key part of the Trump campaign’s decision to join TikTok this summer.
Trump found immediate success on TikTok, where he now has more than 14 million followers. Several members of his family, including Donald Trump Jr. and his niece Kai Trump, have also joined the app.