President-elect Trump says he should be the one to make the decision on whether TikTok can continue operating in the United States due to the unique national security and First Amendment issues raised by this case, he said in an amicus brief Friday.

Trump’s argument comes in an amicus brief “supporting neither party,” filed Friday, weeks before the Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments on Jan. 10, 2025 on the law that requires a divestment of TikTok from foreign adversary control.

TIKTOK DIVESTMENT COULD BE ‘DEAL OF THE CENTURY’ FOR TRUMP, HOUSE CHINA COMMITTEE CHAIR SAYS

TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a company based in Beijing and connected to the Chinese Communist Party. 

“Today, President Donald J. Trump has filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court asking the Court to extend the deadline that would cause TikTok’s imminent shutdown, and allow President Trump the opportunity to resolve the issue in a way that saves TikTok and preserves American national security once he resumes office as President of the United States on January 20, 2025,” Trump spokesman and incoming White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital.

“President Donald J. Trump (“President Trump”) is the 45th and soon to be the 47th President of the United States of America,” the brief states. “On January 20, 2025, President Trump will assume responsibility for the United States’ national security, foreign policy, and other vital executive functions.”

Trump argues that “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.” “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.

President Trump also has a unique interest in the First Amendment issues raised in this case,” the brief states. “Through his historic victory on November 5, 2024, President Trump received a powerful electoral mandate from American voters to protect the free-speech rights of all Americans—including the 170 million Americans who use TikTok.”

“President Trump is uniquely situated to vindicate these interests, because ‘the President and the Vice President of the United States are the only elected officials who represent all the voters in the Nation,’” the brief continues.

WILL TRUMP WHITE HOUSE RESCUE TIKTOK FROM LOOMING BAN? PRESIDENT-ELECT HAS DONE A 180 ON THE APP

Trump argues that due to 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.”

“On September 4, 2024, President Trump posted on Truth Social, ‘FOR ALL THOSE THAT WANT TO SAVE TIK TOK IN AMERICA, VOTE TRUMP!’” the brief states.

Trump argues that he “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.”

“Indeed, President Trump’s first Term was highlighted by a series of policy triumphs achieved through historic deals, and he has a great prospect of success in this latest national security and foreign policy endeavor,” the brief states.

Trump notes that the 270-day deadline imposed by the new TikTok law “expires on January 19, 2025—one day before President Trump will assume office as the 47th President of the United States.”

The TikTok Inc. building is seen in Culver City, Calif., on March 17, 2023.  (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

That legislation, which was signed into law in the spring, requires a sale of TikTok from ByteDance by Jan. 19. If ByteDance does not divest by the deadline, Google and Apple are no longer able to feature TikTok in their app stores in the U.S.

“This unfortunate timing interferes with President Trump’s ability to manage the United States’ foreign policy and to pursue a resolution to both protect national security and save a social-media platform that provides a popular vehicle for 170 million Americans to exercise their core First Amendment rights,” the brief states. “The Act imposes the timing constraint, moreover, without specifying any compelling government interest in that particular deadline.”

Trump points to the law, which “contemplates a 90-day extension to the deadline under certain specified circumstances.”

JOURNALISTS, COMMENTATORS RESPOND AS TRUMP JOINS TIKTOK, RAPIDLY GAINS 10X MORE FOLLOWERS THAN BIDEN

Supreme Court Justices said they will hold a special session on Jan. 10 to hear oral arguments in the case — an expedited timeline that will allow them to consider the case just nine days before the Jan. 19 ban is slated to take effect. The law allows the president to extend the deadline by up to 90 days if ByteDance is in the process of divesting.

“President Trump, therefore, has a compelling interest as the incoming embodiment of the Executive Branch in seeing the statutory deadline stayed to allow his incoming Administration the opportunity to seek a negotiated resolution of these questions,” the brief states. “If successful, such a resolution would obviate the need for this Court to decide the historically challenging First Amendment question presented here on the current, highly expedited basis.”

TikTok and ByteDance filed an emergency application to the high court earlier this month asking justices to temporarily block the law from being enforced while it appealed a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

A view of the U.S. Supreme Court Building.  (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Lawyers for TikTok have argued that the law passed earlier this year is a First Amendment violation, noting in their Supreme Court request that “Congress’s unprecedented attempt to single out applicants and bar them from operating one of the most significant speech platforms in this nation” and “presents grave constitutional problems that this court likely will not allow to stand.”

TikTok, last year, created its “Project Texas” initiative, which is dedicated to addressing concerns about U.S. national security.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew says “Project Texas” creates a stand-alone version of the TikTok platform for the U.S. isolated on servers in Oracle’s U.S. cloud environment. It was developed by CFIUS and cost the company approximately $1.5 billion to implement.

Chew has argued that TikTok is not beholden to any one country, though executives in the past have admitted that Chinese officials had access to Americans’ data even when U.S.-based TikTok officials did not. TikTok claims that the new initiative keeps U.S. user data safe, and told Fox News Digital that data is managed “by Americans, in America.”

Trump has signaled support for TikTok. Earlier this month, he met with Chew at Mar-a-Lago, telling reporters during a press conference ahead of the meeting that his incoming administration will “take a look at TikTok” and the looming U.S. ban.

“I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump told reporters.

WASHINGTON —  After dealing devastating blows to militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel is now directing its military prowess at another key force backed by Iran: the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

On Friday, Israel said it had attacked Yemen’s international airport in the capital of Sanaa as well as several power plants and seaports, all under Houthi control. That followed Houthi firing of rockets into Israel, one hitting a school. And later Friday, the Houthis said they had targeted Israel’s airport, although that missile was apparently intercepted.

At least nine people were reported killed in Yemen and 16 were injured in Israel in attacks and counterattacks over the last week or so as the two sides ramped up their long-simmering conflict.

The Israeli attack on Yemen’s airport on Thursday took place as the director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, waited to board a flight. He was not injured but United Nations officials said aid supplies destined for besieged Yemenis would be interrupted. Israel said the airport was being used by Iran to smuggle weapons to the Houthis.

Israel sought and will receive a rare hearing at the U.N. Security Council on Monday to discuss the Houthi conflict, Israel’s ambassador to the world body, Danny Danon, told The Times. Normally other countries call for sessions to criticize Israel, but Israel was able to take advantage of the U.S. position as the rotating chair of the Security Council.

Danon said he would ask the council to formally condemn the Houthis but remained skeptical of any meaningful action, especially given the veto power held by China and Russia.

“We intend to point out to Iran and the Houthis what happened to Hamas,” Danon said in a telephone interview from New York, site of U.N. headquarters. “It seems that the Houthis have not yet understood what happens to those who try to harm the State of Israel. … We are not playing around.”

The battle in Yemen has often taken a back seat to other explosive, roiling conflicts in the Middle East. For more than a decade, the Yemeni government, backed by Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and other Western powers, has fought Houthi rebels backed by Iran. More than a quarter of a million people have died in attacks and because of food shortages and other humanitarian crises.

The Houthis are one piece of the so-called axis of resistance, a constellation of Iran proxies arrayed around Israel and dedicated to its destruction as well as their own nationalist causes.

Houthi supporters attend an anti-Israel rally in Sanaa, Yemen, on Friday.

(Osamah Abdulrahman / Associated Press)

Over the last 14 months, Israel has pounded Hamas in the Gaza Strip, killing tens of thousands of fighters and civilian Palestinians. The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage.

This fall, Israel destroyed much of the leadership and infrastructure of Hezbollah, a militant and political faction in Lebanon that had increased rocket attacks into Israel that it says are in support of Hamas.

Israel has also exchanged missile barrages with the main backer of Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran. Airstrikes reportedly crippled much of Iran’s defensive capabilities.

Separately, Israel’s other Iran-backed nemesis, the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, collapsed this month under pressure from an assortment of rebel groups, the strongest backed by Turkey.

“The Middle East has changed,” Danon said.

What remained were the Houthis. Also claiming they were acting in support of Hamas in the Gaza war, they launched a series of missile attacks on ships traversing the Red Sea as part of a major commerce chain.

The Biden administration also launched airstrikes on the Houthis earlier this year in response to the attacks on sea vessels and has tried to assemble a collection of countries to protect shipping lanes from the Houthis.

“We’ve tried to raise the consciousness of countries, not only in the region but well beyond, of the damage that the Houthi actions are having to international commerce in real and meaningful ways,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said at the Council on Foreign Relations this month.

Smoke rises from the area around the airport after an airstrike, as seen from Sanaa, Yemen, on Thursday.

(Osamah Abdulrahman / Associated Press)

”The rise of the Houthis … has gotten them to a place where they have assets that have built up, that they have not been shy about using,” Blinken said. “My concern … is that even when we get to the point where the conflict in Gaza is over, [the Houthis] may well continue, because they put themselves on the world stage.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to an Israeli television news channel this week, made clear that the Houthis in Yemen are the next front line.

“We will strike them to the bitter end, until they learn,” Netanyahu said. “Hamas learned, Hezbollah learned, and Syria learned. The Houthis will learn, too.”

The good news: None of the predictions I made in last year’s annual Gustradamus columna came true. If any did, it would have been a sign that the apocalypse is nigh.

The bad news: The apocalypse is here.

Donald Trump is about to become president and is licking his ketchup-specked lips at the prospect of punishing California for not rolling over for him like, say, Jeff Bezos did. Democrats are in the political wilderness now that Latinos seem to be over them. The city of Los Angeles faces a $130-million budget deficit. USC’s football team is playing in something called the SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl, while UCLA’s squad is staying home and probably doing steps up and down Young Research Library.

With so much doom and gloom, I wish I could predict good things for 2025. But my Magic 8 Ball sees little to look forward to except a lot of laughs — because we’ll need to crack up at the cruelty and tomfoolery coming from the White House to keep from crying, you know?

This is some of what I see happening in the next 12 months:

*USC, desperate for football glory again, ditches the Big Ten Conference after just a year for something a bit more manageable: The high school-level Trinity League. They finish in last place after perennial prep powerhouse Mater Dei recruits all of their players, leaving the Trojans with a squad made up of the school’s marching band, outgoing President Carol Folt and journalism majors. The last group has never seen a football game — not even Madden.

*In one of his final acts as president, Joe Biden declares the Graffiti Towers — the long-abandoned trio of downtown skyscrapers that turned into L.A.’s biggest tagging canvas — a national monument. The City Council votes to charge an admission fee so people can tag and base jump to their heart’s content. The resulting crush of tourists rescues L.A. from fiscal insolvency.

*Speaking of City Hall, L.A. Councilmember Monica Rodriguez is invited to appear in the live-action version of “The Incredibles” as her animated doppelganger: voluble, brilliant, bespectacled, fashion-forward Edna Mode. The San Fernando Valley politician wins a best supporting actress Oscar by doing nothing more than playing herself.

*After Donald Trump’s share of the Latino vote increased in every presidential election since 2016 — despite a barrage of insults that included bragging about the taco salad at Trump Tower — he shocks the world by granting amnesty to all illegal immigrants, including double amnesty to Venezuelans and Central Americans so they can vote twice. The move guarantees that Latinos will go Republican for the next generation. It also leads Gavin Newsom and Nancy Pelosi to personally construct a 100-foot wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, brick by brick. Kamala Harris volunteers to stand guard in Calexico with a giant inflatable mallet, because she has nothing better to do.

*LeBron James announces he’s going to play until his 60s so he can become the first NBA player to lose alongside his grandson.

*Danny Trejo — whom I suggested back in 2020 should have been appointed California’s U.S. senator — declares he’s entering the 2026 gubernatorial race. All other candidates immediately drop out, because who wants to debate Machete? Trump immediately softens his anti-California stance, lest Trejo crush his short-fingered hands the first time they meet.

*Out of jobs, with no political future but a lot of time on their hands, former L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva and ex-L.A. Councilmember Kevin de León start a podcast. It lasts all of one episode after both pass out from all the whine.

*Labor leaders deem the incoming senior class president at Baldwin Park High School anti-union because of a project praising hometown chain In-N-Out, whose workers have never formed a union yet enjoy some of the highest wages in fast food. They successfully recall the student after a $1.2-million campaign.

*The Times debuts its bias meter with my columna. The AI-powered doohickey self-immolates upon coming across my first use of Spanglish. Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong stops the project and focuses instead on trying to cure something easier than modern-day journalism: cancer.

Pedestrians pass by blooming jacaranda trees in South Pasadena.

(David McNew / Getty Images)

*Someone finds a purpose for jacaranda trees that’s actually beneficial to mankind.

*After a year of fighting online and via diss tracks, rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar announce they will decide their beef once and for all with a wrestling match in the parking lot of the Tam’s Burgers off Rosecrans and Central avenues in Compton. Since Lamar has the home field advantage, he offers Drake the first kick, punch, body slam, suplex, piledriver, Stone Cold stunner and wedgie. Lamar still easily wins. Drake returns to Canada and takes Justin Bieber with him.

* Elon Musk — who’s suing the California Coastal Commission for not allowing him to launch more SpaceX missions from Vandenberg Space Force Base — decides to move his operations to Mt. Whitney. Newsom — a longtime friend and benefactor of tech bros — tells Musk that’s cool, as long as all those rockets don’t harm the environment. Musk responds by training the bears up there to drive his Cybertrucks so he can start a new Uber rival. Newsom praises Musk’s move as environmentally friendly. The mega-billionaire then turns Mt. Whitney into his lair, calling it Mt. Mar-a-Lago.

*I take a long, relaxing vacation — eh, who am I kidding! Consider it a miracle if I take a two-hour break — and it certainly won’t be at In-N-Out, which will continue to be overrated.