Trump “takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute”, according to the submission. “Instead, he respectfully requests that the court consider staying the act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case.”
This would permit permit the “incoming administration the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case”, it added.
Trump’s brief noted that he officially returns to the White House a day after the law banning TikTok takes effect, calling it “unfortunate timing” that “interferes” with the president-elect’s “ability to manage the United States’ foreign policy and 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”.
The filing further stated that Trump “has a particularly powerful interest in and responsibility for those national-security and foreign-policy questions” and that “he is the right constitutional actor to resolve the dispute through political means”.
It asserted 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”.
