The chief executive of TikTok plans to attend the inauguration of President-elect Donald J. Trump and has been invited to sit in the honor stand on stage, where former presidents, family members and other important guests traditionally sit, two people familiar with the plans said on Wednesday.
The invitation to the chief executive, Shou Chew, came from Trump Vance’s founding committee, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss Monday’s inauguration. Mr. Chew will join Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk on stage, as well as other tech executives at the event, according to two people with knowledge of the event.
TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, declined to comment.
The support of Mr. Trump on TikTok marks a dramatic change from 2020, when he tried in his first term to block the application in the United States and force its sale to American companies. He joined the company last year, especially after he and his campaign became very popular on TikTok during last year’s election.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly said that content about him and his campaign has done well on TikTok. His advisers saw the importance of connecting with the site and said it helped him reach younger voters and those who watch mainstream media.
The acceptance of the Trump administration Mr. Chew is important as the app is on the brink of death in the United States. Congress passed a law last year that said ByteDance had to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese company or face a ban in the United States starting Jan. 19, addresses national security concerns. TikTok has been gambling for the better part of a year that it can beat the law in court. Recently, it has set its sights on reaching another solution with the Trump administration to avoid direct sales. The Supreme Court will rule on this law in the coming days.
Mr. Trump has vowed to maintain the program in the United States once he is inaugurated on Jan. 20, although his options for doing so are limited. Legal experts say the place where Mr. Trump’s possible intervention would include a piece of legislation that gives the president the authority to decide whether ByteDance has done enough to remove TikTok from Chinese control.
Mr. Trump publicly changed his stance on TikTok last year, shortly after meeting with Jeff Yass, a Republican activist who owns a significant stake in ByteDance. Mr. Trump said they did not discuss the company. But Mr. Yass helped found the trading company Susquehanna International Group and is one of the biggest supporters of the anti-tax group Club for Growth. It employs people with ties to Mr. Trump, like Kellyanne Conway, who was a top adviser to the incoming president, and Republican adviser David Urban, to lobby TikTok in Washington.
Mr. Trump met with TikTok executives on December 16 at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, according to an official familiar with the matter. During that meeting, TikTok officials told people on Mr. Trump, and possibly the president-elect, that Mr. Trump should be the one to decide the fate of TikTok, according to two people with knowledge of communications between the two. and the parties, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Soon after, Mr. Trump told reporters that he had a “warm spot” for TikTok and that he would look into the matter.
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