U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to delay a January 19 deadline that would force TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the platform or face a U.S. ban.

The request comes through an amicus brief filed by John Sauer, Trump’s nominee for solicitor general, on December 27, two weeks ahead of the Supreme Court’s scheduled January 10 oral arguments on TikTok’s future. The brief seeks a stay of the deadline to allow the incoming administration to pursue a “negotiated resolution” to preserve the platform while addressing national security concerns.

The filing positions Trump as qualified to resolve the situation, citing his “consummate dealmaking expertise, electoral mandate, and political will” to negotiate a solution that would prevent the platform’s shutdown while addressing government security concerns.

While Trump “opposes banning TikTok in the United States at this juncture,” the brief takes no position on whether the sale requirement violates the First Amendment. Instead, it focuses on securing time for a negotiated solution to protect “the First Amendment rights of tens of millions of Americans.”

The legal challenge stems from the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, signed by President Joe Biden on April 24 as part of a $95 billion foreign aid package. The law requires ByteDance to sell TikTok by January 19 or face a U.S. ban, affecting the platform’s 170 million American users.

Earlier in December, a federal appeals court denied TikTok’s request for an emergency pause of the deadline. The company has filed suit challenging the law’s constitutionality.

The brief raises broader concerns about social media censorship, referencing Brazil’s recent month-long ban of platform X, the handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story, and COVID-19 misinformation efforts. Sauer warns about creating a “slippery slope toward global government censorship of social media speech.”

While acknowledging potential national security risks under ByteDance’s ownership, the filing urges skepticism toward national security officials, claiming they “have repeatedly procured social-media censorship of disfavored content and viewpoints through a combination of pressure, coercion, and deception.”

Trump’s stance is the opposite of his first term when he tried to ban TikTok. During his 2024 presidential campaign, he has pledged to “save” the platform, though his brief doesn’t detail specific plans for addressing the security concerns that prompted the legislation.