The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to consider an expedited challenge to a law that would force social media platform TikTok's Chinese parent company to divest ownership or be banned in the U.S. by Jan. 19.

President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated one day after that deadline, has now urged the Supreme Court to delay that end date and hold off on rendering a decision for the time being, according to Newsweek.

The reason for Trump's request is the belief that he, once becomes the president again, will be able to negotiate a deal that addresses the varied concerns of all parties involved while simultaneously avoiding the need for the court to make a potentially major precedent-setting decision.

Supreme Court takes up TikTok ban case

SCOTUSblog reported on Dec. 18 that the Supreme Court decided to take up an expedited appeal by TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, as well as a related challenge filed by TikTok users, against a D.C. Circuit Court decision that upheld a law that would require ByteDance to sell the popular platform to other ownership or face a complete and enforceable ban of TikTok in the U.S. on Jan. 19.

TikTok and its users contend that the forced sale under threat of ban constitutes a violation of First Amendment-protected free speech rights, while the federal government argues that TikTok's Chinese ownership represents a direct threat to user data and privacy as well as national security interests.

In taking up and consolidating the two cases of TikTok v. Garland and Firebaugh v. Garland, the justices set a date of Jan. 10 to hear oral arguments on the question of "Whether the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, as applied to petitioners, violates the First Amendment."

Trump requests a delay on TikTok ban deadline

Enter into the fray President-elect Trump and his attorneys, who filed a 25-page amicus brief with the Supreme Court by a Dec. 27 deadline but took neither side in the legal dispute nor addressed the merits of their arguments, but rather merely asked for a delay.

"This case presents an unprecedented, novel, and difficult tension between free-speech rights on one side, and foreign policy and national-security concerns on the other," the filing stated. "As the incoming Chief Executive, President Trump has a particularly powerful interest in and responsibility for those national-security and foreign-policy questions, and he is the right constitutional actor to resolve the dispute through political means."

It was noted that Trump had a "unique interest in the First Amendment issues raised in this case," given his effective use of and large following on TikTok during his re-election campaign, as well as his own prior experience and perspective from owning the Truth Social platform.

"Trump alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise"

"In light of these interests -- including, most importantly, his overarching responsibility for the United States’ national security and foreign policy -- President Trump opposes banning TikTok in the United States at this juncture, and seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office," Trump's attorneys wrote in the brief.

"Furthermore, President Trump alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a
resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the Government -- concerns which President Trump himself has acknowledged," the filing continued.

"In light of the novelty and difficulty of this case, the Court should consider staying the statutory deadline to grant more breathing space to address these issues. The Act itself contemplates the possibility of a 90-day extension, indicating that the 270-day deadline lacks talismanic significance," Trump's attorneys added. "Such a stay would vitally grant President Trump the opportunity to pursue a political resolution that could obviate the Court’s need to decide these constitutionally significant questions."

Trump's TikTok evolution

Newsweek noted that President-elect Trump has "evolved significantly" on the matter of TikTok's Chinese ownership, given that he initially attempted to ban the platform via executive order during his first term but now insists that the platform doesn't need to be shut down in the U.S. -- at least not yet.

In fact, during a recent press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump told reporters, "I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok. I am confident in achieving a resolution that secures national security and preserves American rights."