‘Warm Spot in My Heart’: TikTok’s CEO Was Spotted at Mar-a-Lago With President-elect Donald Trump. Here’s Why.

On Monday, TikTok and its parent company, China-based ByteDance, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to pause the upcoming Jan. 19 deadline imposed by U.S. lawmakers in April that forces the two companies to sever relations or face a ban.

Hours later, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, making his case to President-elect Donald Trump at the “Winter White House,” CNN first reported.

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The outlet notes that the meeting was pre-scheduled. ByteDance said previously that it won’t sell TikTok.

Earlier in the day, Trump said at a press conference that he is taking “a look at TikTok” and has a “warm spot” in his heart for the app. Under the legislation passed in the Spring, the President of the U.S. can call for a “one-time extension” of the deadline.

Trump’s words Monday are a departure from 2020 when he tried to ban TikTok outright. Some of Trump’s top brass, including Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio, have been the ban’s most vocal supporters.

“TikTok extended the Chinese Communist Party’s power and influence into our own nation, right under our noses,” Rubio said in a press release on his website in April. “I have been raising concerns about TikTok since 2019, so this new law forcing ByteDance to divest from TikTok is a huge step toward confronting Beijing’s malign influence. It’s official: Communist China is on the clock.”

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TikTok argued that the deadline should be delayed or paused while it awaits a Supreme Court review, but a federal appeals court denied the request last week.

In an emergency application on Monday, TikTok’s attorneys asked the Supreme Court to decide by January 6 so that the company can “coordinate with their service providers to perform the complex task of shutting down the TikTok platform only in the United States” in time for the Jan. 19 deadline.

In a court filing earlier in December, TikTok said that if the ban happens, creators and small businesses in the U.S. could lose $1.3 billion in revenue and earnings in just one month.

TikTok has more than 150 million users in the U.S., according to the company. In May, Chew was an honorary chair of the Met Gala at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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