Dec. 28 (UPI) — President-elect Donald Trump intervened in the Supreme Court case that ultimately could decide whether a federal ban on TikTok occurs.
Attorney John Sauer filed a 25-page brief Friday requesting the Supreme Court to consider whether the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act violates the First Amendment.
“President Trump is one of the most powerful, prolific and influential users of social media in history,” Sauer said.
Trump has 14.7 million followers on TikTok, which he says allows him to “evaluate TikTok’s importance as a unique medium for freedom of expression, including core political speech,” he argues.
Sauer said Trump and “his rival” used TikTok to connect with voters during the 2024 election cycle.
“As this court instructs, the First Amendment’s ‘constitutional guarantee has its fullest and most urgent application precisely to the conduct of campaigns for political office,'” Sauer said.
The brief said 170 million Americans use TikTok, and the president and vice president are the only elected officials who represent all of the nation’s voters.
Trump also owns the social media site Truth Social, which Sauer says, “gives him an in-depth perspective on the extraordinary government power attempted to be exercised in this case.”
He said that government power is to “effectively shut down a social media platform favored by tens of millions of Americans based in large part on concerns about disfavored content on that platform.”
Sauer cites Brazilian officials banning X for more than a month earlier in 2024 due to political speech on that social media site as an example of government interference with free speech.
“President Trump alone possesses the consummate deal-making expertise, the electoral mandate and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the government,” Sauer says.
Trump acknowledges those concerns, but the 270-day federal deadline for TikTok to sell its U.S. interests or be shut down expires on Jan.19, while Trump is scheduled to be sworn in on Jan. 20.
“This unfortunate timing interferes with President Trump’s ability to … pursue a resolution to both protect national security and save a social media platform that provides a popular vehicle for 170 million Americans to exercise their core First Amendment rights,” Sauer says.
The brief asks the court to stay the TikTok deadline to enable Trump’s incoming administration to negotiate a resolution to the matter.
At least one critic said Trump’s interest in the matter is more personal rather than policy-driven.
“With Donald Trump, it’s always some combination of two things,” Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., told CNN host Jim Sciutto on Friday, The Hill reported.
“It’s, one, flattery and inflating his ego. And then number two is the soft corruption and sycophancy of his inner circle,” Auchincloss said. “Those two threads can intertwine, and they can change American policy.”
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments regarding the pending TikTok ban on Jan. 10 and whether or not Chinese firm ByteDance must sell the social media company to a U.S. firm or be banned on Jan. 19.
U.S. lawmakers and officials have accused ByteDance of being influenced by the Chinese government, which its owners have denied.