President Trump has managed to turn a controversial TikTok ban into a political advantage, framing himself as the savior of the popular video-sharing platform by offering the app a 75-day reprieve.
The president has taken a more receptive approach toward TikTok — albeit one mired in legal questions — that gives him room to attempt to negotiate a deal and cultivate more goodwill with TikTok’s young supporters.
“He has, frankly, all of the upside with none of the downside,” Republican strategist Brian Seitchik told The Hill. “He looks like he’s doing everything that he can at this point to try to delay the cancellation or termination of TikTok in America.”
A TikTok ban was set to go into effect earlier this month, after the app’s China-based parent company, ByteDance,failed to divest as required by a law passed by Congress and signed by President Biden.
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order halting enforcement of the law for 75 days, as he seeks to strike a deal to keep TikTok available in the U.S. going forward.
His push to reach a deal on TikTok likely plays well with younger voters, who are more likely to use the app, Seitchik noted.
“That is certainly very appealing to influencers and young voters, a demographic that Trump exceeded expectations in the ‘24 race, a demo that has not been particularly good to Republicans in decades,” Seitchik said.
“The question for Republicans running nationally and statewide is often, ‘How can we stem the bleeding on young voters?’” he continued. “And Trump has found a way to get to something that very much matters to these voters and impact the influencers that then affect these younger voters.”
Trump’s TikTok push comes after he made surprising in-roads with young voters, which have typically been a strong base of support for Democrats.
While Vice President Harris still won the majority of voters under 30 in the 2024 election, she did so by a much slimmer margin than former President Biden did in 2020. She won young voters by just 11 points, compared to Biden’s 24-point lead with the same age group, according to CNN exit polls.
Trump’s return to the White House has brought a marked change in tenor on the TikTok ban. Biden took a “hardball” approach toward TikTok, said Owen Tedford, a senior research analyst at Beacon Policy Advisors.
“The Biden administration seemed to be much more skeptical of its willingness to deal,” Tedford said. “But then as a deadline was approaching, there was a sense that this wasn’t actually supposed to result in a ban. The ban was just supposed to be a threat that forced a divestiture.”
While Biden emphasized the risks related to TikTok’s ties to China, Trump has downplayed the threat the app poses, suggesting that the U.S. has “bigger problems.”
“Take a look at telephones that are made in China and all the other things that are made in China, military equipment made in China,” he said last week. “I think TikTok is not the biggest problem.”
TikTok itself helped hand Trump a win with its brief shutdown earlier this month.
As the ban was set to go into effect shortly before Trump took office, the Biden White House said it would not enforce the law in its final days. However, TikTok maintained that it had not received sufficient assurances from the Biden administration and shut down the app.
After Trump offered to sign an order halting enforcement, TikTok restored service to its U.S. users, specifically citing the president’s efforts.
“I think some of TikTok’s decision to pull themselves down for like 12 to 16 hours was mainly a way to appease Trump and make him feel like he was the one saving them, even though Biden administration had offered, maybe not quite as explicit, but a similar commitment to not enforcing the law,” Tedford said.
“TikTok wants Trump to feel like he’s in the driver seat, as much as Trump has put himself there, and I think that’s just all part of this negotiating strategy and a way for TikTok to try to remain in his good graces,” he added.
Trump’s approach so far seems to have opened the door to negotiations. The Chinese government, which previously said it would “firmly oppose” a forced sale of TikTok, noted last week that private companies can independently make business decisions.
The president, for his part, has repeatedly expressed interest in a deal where the U.S. takes a 50 percent stake in the company.
Renewed interest in a deal from all sides has sparked new bidders to join the fray. From former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary to tech giants like Microsoft and Oracle, numerous entities have submitted proposals to ByteDance or engaged in talks with the White House.
Even if a deal fails to materialize, Trump may not face steep political costs, strategists noted.
“There’s very little downside here if the ban goes through in a couple weeks or months,” Seitchik said. “He still gets credit for doing everything he can to try to stop it without any of the real downside.”
Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright was also skeptical Trump would face blowback without a deal.
“He will spin this in such a way that he will blame it on the system and blame everyone but himself,” Seawright told The Hill.
He emphasized that Trump was “the initiator of the TikTok ban” but has faced few consequences for altering his position.
Trump initially sought to force a divestiture of TikTok’s U.S. assets via executive order during his first term in 2020 but was blocked by the courts. As his third presidential campaign ramped up in 2024, he reversed course on the platform and opposed the potential ban.
“I think there’s a lesson to be learned for Democrats in this that the American people perhaps will not hold you accountable on matters if you happen to make adjustments to your position,” Seawright said.
“Donald Trump changed his position, and he changed it for the sake of political reasons because TikTok certainly was a tool … used during the course of his campaign,” he added.
If a deal remains out of reach at the end of the 75 days allotted by the executive order, Trump could attempt to push back the deadline further to accommodate negotiations, Tedford suggested.
Some have questioned whether Trump can legally decline to enforce a law passed by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court, although no challenges have been brought to the executive order yet.
“How real is this 75-day deadline?” Tedford said. “And if we accepted 75 days once, in my view at least there’s no reason to not think that another 75 days, 90 days, whatever Trump wants it to be, could be in the cards if needed.”
