You might’ve missed it if you were blinking, but Shou Zi Chew was definitely there.
On January 20, 2025, while the rest of the world was focused on the pomp, circumstance, and those oversized red ties, the TikTok CEO was quietly making one of the most high-stakes appearances in tech history. He wasn't just there for the party. He was there because, less than 24 hours earlier, TikTok had actually gone dark in the United States.
The app was dead. The "ban" had officially kicked in on January 19.
Then came the inauguration. And honestly, it was kinda surreal to see Chew sitting in the same general vicinity as the people who spent the last four years trying to legislate his company out of existence. He was invited by Donald Trump himself—a massive pivot from Trump’s 2020 attempt to ban the platform.
The Seating Chart Drama Nobody Noticed
If you’re a tech nerd, the seating arrangement at the 2025 inauguration was basically the Super Bowl. For the first time, we saw the "Big Tech" titans treated like visiting royalty rather than corporate villains.
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sundar Pichai were all bunched together in what looked like the world’s most expensive group chat. They had prime seats, sometimes even better than the incoming Cabinet picks.
But where was Chew?
Early reports suggested he’d be "front and center" on the dais. In reality, once the ceremony moved inside the Capitol Rotunda because of the freezing D.C. weather, the logistics got messy. While Zuckerberg and Bezos were rubbing shoulders with the Trump family, Shou Chew ended up a bit further back. Specifically, he was spotted near Tulsi Gabbard, the pick for Director of National Intelligence.
Think about that for a second. The CEO of an app labeled a "national security threat" by Congress was sitting next to the person in charge of the nation’s intelligence. You can’t make this stuff up.
The 24-Hour "Dark Period"
To understand why the TikTok CEO at the inauguration was such a big deal, you have to remember what happened the day before.
January 19, 2025, was supposed to be the end of the line. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA) required ByteDance to sell TikTok or get booted from American app stores. The Supreme Court had refused to block it.
On that Sunday, the app actually stopped working for millions of Americans. Apple and Google pulled it from their stores.
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It felt final.
But then, Monday morning happened. Within hours of being sworn in, Trump signed an executive order. He didn’t "cancel" the law—he couldn't, since it was passed by Congress—but he used his executive power to delay enforcement for 75 days.
Basically, he hit the snooze button.
Why Trump Flipped on TikTok
It’s easy to forget that Trump was the one who started the war on TikTok back in 2020. So, why the invite to the inauguration? Why the sudden "warm spot" in his heart for the app?
- The Youth Vote: TikTok was a massive engine for the Trump campaign in 2024. He gained over 14 million followers and realized the platform was his direct line to Gen Z and young male voters.
- The "Anti-Zuckerberg" Factor: In the weird logic of modern politics, supporting TikTok became a way to spite Meta and Google.
- The Dealmaker Persona: Trump loves a deal. He didn't want to just ban it; he wanted to own the solution. By the end of 2025, we saw this play out with the "joint venture" agreement where U.S. investors took a massive stake in the company.
The Atmosphere in the Rotunda
People who were there described the vibe as "the official surrender of Silicon Valley."
Steve Bannon actually called the tech CEOs "supplicants" who were there to make an "official surrender" to the new administration. Shou Chew, however, looked more like a man who had just been granted a stay of execution.
He wasn't gloating. He was lobbyist-in-chief.
While the other CEOs were talking about AI and space travel, Chew was fighting for the survival of 170 million American accounts. His presence was a signal to the markets and to ByteDance back in Beijing that the door was still open.
What This Means for Your Feed
If you’re reading this in 2026, you know how it ended: TikTok survived, but it looks different now.
The "joint venture" model that Trump proposed on Truth Social—where the U.S. has a 50% ownership position—basically became the blueprint. Shou Zi Chew’s appearance at the inauguration was the first public step in that transformation.
It wasn't just about a CEO attending a party. It was the moment TikTok moved from being a "rogue" foreign app to becoming a permanent, albeit heavily monitored, fixture of American life.
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What You Should Know Now
If you're still worried about the "ban" or how your data is handled after all this political maneuvering, here are the actual takeaways:
- The Law is Still There: The PAFACA law wasn't deleted; it’s just being satisfied through the new ownership structure.
- Data Sovereignty: The "Oracle Cloud" setup (Project Texas) was expanded significantly after the 2025 inauguration deals.
- Executive Power: We learned that a President's "non-enforcement" order can effectively bypass a Congressional deadline, at least for a while.
The next time you see a "TikTok CEO" headline, remember that January day in D.C. It was the day the app stopped being a tech story and became a permanent political one.
Actionable Next Steps:
Check your app's "Privacy and Safety" settings to see the updated "U.S. Data Security" disclosures. These were mandated following the 2025 executive orders and give a much clearer picture of who actually sees your data under the new joint-ownership model.