TikTok CEO Hsu Chu is expected to accept an invitation from President-elect Donald Trump to attend his inauguration.
The New York Times reports that Chu will sit front center on stage with other VIP guests and technology executives Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
The Jan. 20 inauguration comes one day after TikTok plans to cease operations in the United States.
President Trump is currently considering an executive order that would suspend enforcement of a law that would require TikTok to divest from Chinese-owned ByteDance, according to the Washington Post. This is said to be to buy time for sale negotiations. Other solutions.
President Trump’s defense of TikTok marks a reversal from his position in 2020, when he tried to block the video-sharing app in the United States and force it to sell to American companies.
President Trump says TikTok’s fate should be in his own hands when he returns to the White House
TikTok CEO Sho-Gi Chiu testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee at the Rayburn House Office Building on the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, on March 23, 2023. (Getty Images)
“I have a warm spot for TikTok,” President Trump said last month. The president-elect has more than 14 million followers on the app. He met with company executives at Mar-a-Lago last month.
In a broadly bipartisan fashion, Congress last year passed legislation implementing a no-sale policy, alleging that the Chinese Communist Party uses the app to spy on Americans and spread propaganda, but Byte Dance has long maintained that TikTok is not for sale.
There are reports that US billionaires such as Mr Musk and Kevin O’Leary are lining up to make offers for TikTok’s US operations.


Former President Donald Trump headlines the Republican National Committee’s Spring Donor Retreat in Palm Beach, Florida on May 4, 2024. (Donald Trump 2024 Campaign)
President Trump sets up meeting with President Putin while communicating with Xi Jinping
The Supreme Court last week considered a challenge to the law, which takes effect on January 19. Although a ruling has not yet been issued, it is expected that the law will be allowed to go into effect. If the court upholds the law, as a lower court ruled last month, TikTok will not have long to live in the United States.
President Trump could urge Congress to repeal the law or direct the Justice Department not to enforce it. His attorney general nominee, Pam Bondi, declined to say whether she would enforce the ban during her confirmation hearing this week.


People take their positions as rehearsals begin on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025, in Washington, DC. (AP photo)
Last month, President Trump surprised U.S. foreign policy officials by inviting Chinese President Xi Jinping to his inauguration, but Xi is not expected to attend.
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Despite chronic hacking by the Chinese, President Trump appears to be taking a diplomatic tone with President Xi Jinping and his government, with Trump threatening to impose tariffs of up to 60% on exports to the United States. It makes them wary of the president’s longstanding promises.
“We have a good relationship with China, and I have a good relationship with China,” President Trump told CNBC last month. “We have discussed and discussed several things with President Xi.”