As the potential U.S. TikTok ban is looking more certain, some suspect that Donald Trump’s election might mean that the popular social media app will stick around. His billionaire pal Jeff Yass has a stake in the game, after all.
As it stands, TikTok’s fate is looking a little bleak. A federal appeals court recently rejected the company’s attempts to block the nation’s ban of the app, meaning that TikTok is set to sunset on Jan. 19. That’s one day before Trump’s inauguration, calling into question whether he’ll be able to follow through on his campaign promise to save it.
Even though Trump vowed to rescue TikTok while campaigning, the former president's stance on the social media company has flip-flopped a couple times. In 2020, Trump signed an executive order attempting to ban the app, citing national security concerns. Since then, Trump has waffled on TikTok. He’s also grown closer to Jeff Yass, a libertarian poker player with big pockets and an investment in not only the app but also Trump himself.
Jeff Yass’s influence over Trump and TikTok
Cofounder of investment company and trading firm Susquehanna International Group, Yass has an estimated net worth just shy of $50 billion. Much of the Pennsylvania-based billionaire’s wealth is tied up in no other than TikTok, as Forbes reports that Susquehanna’s most valuable holding is ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company. Susquehanna holds a 15% stake in ByteDance, a source “familiar with the investment,” told the New York Times. And Yass himself owns 7%.
In a "get to know you" video posted on his company's site, he says, "I graduated college as a math major; I was unemployable. I went to Las Vegas and played poker for a year and a half." He went on to become an independent options trader. Finding the options market to be "very lucrative," Yass called his college poker friends and told them, "This game is unbelievable, come on down to Philadelphia" to get trained.
Yass started funneling money into the 2024 election early; at one point in March he was the biggest donor to outside spending groups. He, alongside wife Janine Yass, were No. 6 in top contributors to the election, contributing in total more than $96 million to Republican causes, per nonprofit tracker of campaign lobbying Open Secrets.
The mega-donor might be somewhat connected to Trump's invitation to conservative PAC Club for Growth’s retreat in Breakers this past year, Bloomberg suggests in a recent article. In 2023, Trump wasn’t invited to said event. Yass, who has donated more than $60 million to Club for Growth since 2016, found an ally in Trump.
Not long after the event in Breakers, Trump publicly changed his stance on TikTok, Bloomberg notes. “If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” Trump posted to Truth Social. “I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!”
Can Trump really save TikTok?
TikTok is continuing to fight back against the U.S. ban.
"Today, we filed an emergency motion for an injunction to stop the TikTok Ban from taking effect on January 19, 2025 until our appeal of the decision by the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit is heard by the U.S. Supreme Court,” a spokesperson told Fortune. They note that the app has more than 170 million users in America and estimate that with a ban enacted small businesses would lose $1 billion in revenue and creators would lose almost $300 million monthly.
Calling a potential ban or sale a “gut punch” for TikTok, Dan Ives, a managing director and senior equity research analyst at Wedbush Securities, explained to CNBC that it would also be disastrous for Yass. “This would be a nightmare for Yass, given the major investment in TikTok,” Ives said.
The law regarding banning the app received rare bipartisan support. Lawmakers expressed concern about users’ private data in the hands of the Chinese government. Other companies like Facebook and Google have also come under fire for privacy concerns, but geopolitical tensions and tech races likely make America more aggressive toward the social media app from China.
The law is potentially headed toward the Supreme Court, which is brimming with Trump appointees. Trump can’t issue an executive order to undo the decision, Anupam Chander, professor of law specializing in tech at Georgetown University, told Barron’s. "He can't reverse the law with a stroke of the pen, but he can undermine the law in a variety of ways,” he said.
"All he can do is implore either the judges to side with him or to implore the various companies to not actually obey the law,” he continued. But his partnership with Yass might mean that Trump is willing to pull a couple of strings.
