CNN’s Elie Honig Lays Out What Options Trump Has To Slow Down TikTok Ban

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig laid out President-elect Donald Trump’s options Thursday to slow down the TikTok ban set to be imposed in the coming days.

In December, Trump requested the U.S. Supreme Court to block legislation signed by President Joe Biden in April intending to ban the Chinese-owned app unless it is in the process of being sold to an American company by Jan. 19. Honig said that Trump could either order the executive branch to not enforce the law or issue a hold on the legislation if negotiations for the sale of TikTok are underway.

“The president could issue an order to the executive branch saying ‘do not enforce this law’ because ultimately the fines that would be levied against TikTok have to come through the executive branch,” Honig said. “That would be controversial, however, to have a brand new law that passed by huge bipartisan majorities and immediately to say ‘ignore it.’ But I think the cleaner way, if Donald Trump wants to at least buy some time, is the law says if the president officially certifies that negotiations for the sale of TikTok to a U.S. company have commenced have begun, that could put the law on hold for up to 90 days.”

“Donald Trump could say ‘look, I have spoken to the leaders of TikTok, there’s various thoughts and rumors out there in the ether, and that’s enough. And so if Donald Trump wants, he can issue that declaration saying we’re at least going to put it on hold for 90 days,” Honig continued.

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The Supreme Court agreed to hear TikTok’s challenge to the ban in a Dec. 18 decision and heard oral arguments on Friday. The justices appeared unwilling to strike down the legislation as they believed Congress had the right to pass the law based on national security concerns, Honig said.