WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump said Monday he has a “warm spot” for TikTok after he was asked about a pending ban targeting the social media giant during his first press conference since winning the 2024 presidential election.
“We’ll take a look at TikTok,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question about how he planned to save the platform. Congress approved and President Joe Biden signed a bill earlier this year requiring TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app. If they don’t, it would be banned from app stores and web hosting companies in the U.S.
Trump told reporters that he believed the social media app helped him gain ground with young voters in the 2024 election. Trump falsely claimed that he won young Americans by 34 points. Voters ages 18 to 29 shifted more toward Trump than they had in past elections, but data from Tufts University’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement found that Vice President Kamala Harris won young voters 52% to 56%.
A person arrives at the offices of Tik Tok after the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would give TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the U.S. assets of the short-video app or face a ban, in Culver City, California, U.S., March 13, 2024.
“Tiktok had an impact, and so we’re taking a look at it,” Trump said of the app, which around 170 million Americans use. “I have a little bit of a warm spot in my heart. I’ll be honest.”
TikTok is facing down a Jan. 19 deadline after a federal appeals court earlier this month backed the legislation that would effectively ban TikTok in the U.S.
The bill passed Congress in April with overwhelming bipartisan support. Proponents of the bill said that TikTok posed a national security risk and raised concern about the possibility of the Chinese government spying on Americans through the app.
Trump during the press conference also credited other media appearances, including a three-hour podcast interview on the podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” with helping him gain ground with young Americans. He credited his 18-year-old son, Barron Trump, with helping him pinpoint the right media sources to win youth voters.
“I did those interviews, and it was actually sort of cute,” Trump said.
Contributing: Riley Beggin and Greta Cross, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump backs TikTok, says Barron Trump helped pick appearances
