TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to attend ‘victory rally’ with Trump before inauguration as ban looms

Marianne LeVine, Cristiano Lima-Strong, Drew Harwell, Cat Zakrzewski
The Washington Post
Personal data at the forefront of concern has resulted in calls to ban TikTok for good, racist sitcoms misinterpreted and vale Simon Townsend.

TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew plans to attend a “victory rally” celebrating Donald Trump on Sunday at Washington’s Capital One Arena and the president-elect’s swearing-in on Monday, publicly aligning himself with the incoming commander in chief who has pledged to “save” the popular app from a ban set to take effect this weekend.

Chew, who less than a year ago faced a hostile reception in Washington as lawmakers grilled him about TikTok’s ties to China at a hearing, will be attending at least three celebrations for Trump in the coming days, according to people familiar with his plans.

On Saturday, the eve of the potential ban, he plans to attend a reception for the incoming cabinet and a dinner for Vice President-elect JD Vance, one of the people said.

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The next day, he will attend the rally in the suite of Raul Fernandez, a Trump donor who is a partner in Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns several sports teams and operates athletic venues.

He has been invited to sit on the dais on Monday as an honored guest as Trump is sworn in as president, two of the people said. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that were not yet public.

Chew is weighing skipping the annual gathering of business leaders and politicians in Davos, Switzerland, next week, to stay in Washington to focus on the potential ban, one of the people said.

Chew’s high-profile plans for the inaugural weekend fall at a pivotal moment for TikTok’s US operations.

The popular video-sharing platform is barreling toward a possible shutdown in the United States on Sunday if its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, does not sell off the app and if neither the Supreme Court nor the Biden administration intervenes to halt a federal ban-or-sale law from taking effect.

While Trump previously advocated for a TikTok ban as president, he said on the campaign trail that he plans to rescue it from the bipartisan law passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden last year, though how he aims to do so remains unclear.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Trump is exploring issuing an executive order once he enters office to halt enforcement of the law for 60 or 90 days, a move that would give the app a temporary reprieve.

TikTok declined to comment on Chew’s plans.

The company awaits judgment by the Supreme Court on its challenge to the ban-or-sale law, though a majority of the justices last week appeared inclined to uphold it. If the law is upheld or the court declines to delay its implementation, TikTok could shut down Sunday.

The court sent a strong signal that it will announce its opinion on the app’s fate at 10am Friday, updating its online calendar late Thursday to reflect that it “may announce opinions on the homepage beginning at 10am The Court will not take the Bench.”

Trump has praised TikTok in recent weeks, crediting the platform with helping him to court young voters during the presidential race last year. “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said at a news conference last month.

Trump met with Chew at Mar-a-Lago last month as questions about the app’s fate swelled, according to a person familiar with the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

One top Democrat rebuked Trump’s decision to invite the TikTok chief to his inauguration as the company battles a federal law aiming to close down or sell off the app in the U.S. for national security reasons.

“Donald Trump talks tough on China and once called for a ban on TikTok. … But now, he’s inviting TikTok’s CEO to join him at his inauguration, despite the app’s well-documented links to the Chinese Communist Party and its threat to our national security. What kind of message does this send?” Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-New Jersey), who backed the law, said in a statement.

Shou Zi Chew, the chief executive of TikTok, testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on online child sexual exploitation.
Shou Zi Chew, the chief executive of TikTok, testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on online child sexual exploitation. Credit: KENNY HOLSTON/NYT

TikTok’s policy arm rebuffed the comments in a post replying to Pallone on X: “Message being that you want to silence and censor over 170 million Americans’ right to free speech.”

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma), an ally of Trump, said in a video posted on X on Thursday that the invitation “has to do with President Trump understanding the influence that it does have with the young generation.” Trump, he said, wants young users to understand that the scrutiny “isn’t about TikTok,” but rather the threat posed by its links to China.

While Trump is now pledging to rescue the app, the law that could usher in its prohibition sailed through Congress with broad support last year, including from many Republicans. It passed 79-18 in the Senate and 360-58 in the House as part of a major foreign aid bill.

Chew will join other prominent tech executives who are set to attend Trump’s inauguration, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla chief Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.) The New York Times first reported news of Chew’s plans.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are also expected to attend, according to two people familiar with their plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private deliberations.

The plans put the TikTok chief in close proximity to the leaders of some companies tasked with imposing the ban. Under the ban-or-sale law, app store giants - including Google and Apple, along with internet hosting services - could face billions of dollars in penalties if they continue to carry TikTok or push updates to the app.

It’s unclear how exactly a ban would unfold, however.

Inside TikTok, executives have discussed pulling the app offline for US users on Sunday to underscore how disruptive a ban would be, according to a person familiar with their thinking who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal plans.

The executives hope such an action - which would go beyond the law’s demands that TikTok be pulled from app stores, not entirely shut down - would rile up users and offer a striking reality check of the law’s ripple effects.

The executives have not definitively decided to pursue that route, the person said, and they could choose to reverse the blackout at any time. The Information first reported on the potential plans.

Biden could still throw the app a last-minute lifeline under the law by giving ByteDance an extra 90 days to pursue a sale.

But a senior Biden administration official told The Post that Biden is unlikely to do so given ByteDance’s opposition to a sale and the seeming lack of progress toward a deal.

On Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) threw his support behind new legislation that would give the company 270 extra days to sell TikTok, a measure introduced this week by Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Massachusetts).

“It’s clear that more time is needed to find an American buyer and not disrupt the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans and so many influencers who have built up a good network of followers,” Schumer said during a speech on the Senate floor.

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Gerrit De Vynck and Ann Marimow contributed to this report.

© 2025 , The Washington Post

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