After Donald Trump won the US presidency last week, tech CEOs included Applefrom Tim Kok, Meta‘s Mark Zuckerberg and AmazonJeff Bezos publicly praised the president-elect.

One name was conspicuously missing: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.

His absence was notable considering that of all the top tech companies, TikTok faces the most immediate and existential threat from the U.S. government. In April, President Joe Biden signed a law requiring China’s ByteDance to sell TikTok by January 19. If ByteDance doesn’t comply, internet hosting companies and app store owners like Apple and Google will be banned from supporting TikTok, effectively banning it. the USA

However, Trump’s return to the White House could provide a lifeline for Chew and TikTok.

Although both Republicans and Democrats supported the Biden TikTok ban in April, Trump voiced his opposition to the ban during his candidacy. Trump acknowledged national security and data privacy concerns with TikTok in a March interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” but he also said “there’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad” with the app.

Trump also used TikTok’s shaky future in the US as a reason for people to vote against Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris.

“We’re not doing anything with TikTok, but the other side is going to put an end to it, so if you like TikTok, get out and vote for Trump,” the president-elect said in a post on his Truth Social service in September .

Since his election, Trump has not publicly discussed his plans for TikTok, but Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told CNBC that the newly elected president will “deliver the result.”

“The American people re-elected President Trump by a wide margin, giving him a mandate to fulfill the promises he made during the campaign,” Leavitt said in a statement.

Trump’s rhetoric on TikTok began to change after the president-elect met billionaire Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor and major investor in China’s social media app, in February.

Yass’ trading firm Susquehanna International Group owns a 15% stake in ByteDance, while Yass has a 7% stake in the company, worth about $21 billion, NBC and CNBC reported in March. That month, it was also reported that Yass was co-owner of the company that merged with Trump’s parent company Truth Social.

If ByteDance doesn’t sell TikTok by the January deadline, Trump could potentially appeal to Congress to repeal the law, or he could implement more “selective enforcement” of the law, essentially leaving TikTok in the U.S. can continue to operate without sanctions being imposed. said Sarah Kreps, professor of government at Cornell University. “Selective enforcement” would be akin to police officers not always enforcing every case of jaywalking, she said.

On TikTok, meanwhile, Chew has remained quiet since Trump’s victory, just as he had been in the run-up to Election Day.

The Chinese-owned company may adopt a neutral approach and a wait-and-see strategy for now, said Long Le, a Chinese business expert and associate professor at Santa Clara University.

Le said it is difficult to predict what Trump will do.

“He’s also contrarian; that makes him unpredictable,” Le said. “He can say one thing, and the next year he’ll change his mind.”

TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.

When it comes to social media apps, Trump’s campaign comments suggest he’s more concerned about TikTok rival Meta.

In his March interview with “Squawk Box,” Trump said Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is a much bigger problem than TikTok. He also said a TikTok ban would only benefit Meta, who he called “an enemy of the people.”

“Facebook has been very bad for our country, especially when it comes to elections,” Trump said.

But Trump’s negative views of Meta may have changed following comments from CEO Mark Zuckerberg in recent months, Cornell’s Kreps said.

Zuckerberg described the photo of Trump raising his fist after a failed assassination attempt in July as “one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in my life.” And after Trump’s victory, Zuckerberg congratulated him, saying he looked forward to working with the newly elected president and his administration.

“My feeling as Trump’s armchair psychologist is that he really likes people who sing his praises, and so his view of Zuckerberg and Meta, I think, has changed,” Kreps said. “He might then return to his American economic nationalism and say, ‘Let’s protect American industry and continue with the Chinese ban.’”

Meta did not respond to a request for comment.

Maintaining support for the TikTok ban could also win Trump’s political favor with lawmakers concerned about China’s global political and business influence, said Milton Mueller, a professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy.

“I don’t see him scoring any major political points by standing up for TikTok,” Mueller said, noting that few lawmakers, such as Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., have opposed the ban.

Even if Trump offers TikTok a lifeline, it is unclear how much damage that would do to his administration as many politicians are reluctant to publicly criticize him, Le said.

“They’re not going to challenge him because he has so much power,” Le said.

Since launching his TikTok account in June, Trump has amassed more than 14 million followers. Given his knowledge of social media, Trump may not want to make a decision that results in him losing the public attention and influence he gained on TikTok, Le said.

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