TikTok chief executive Shou Chew attended president-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural events in Washington, appearing at a church service before the swearing-in ceremony as his popular video-sharing app faces the threat of a nationwide ban.

Trump has said that he hopes to preserve TikTok, which was the subject of a national security law signed by President Joe Biden last April because of concerns raised by Chinese ownership. He’s promised to sign an executive order granting the app more time to find a new owner, which was a requirement under the law. It’s still unclear whether Trump has the legal power to grant an extension, but he recently praised the app for helping him reach young voters during the election.

Trump proposed on Truth Social over the weekend that the United States and TikTok’s parent, ByteDance Ltd., form a “joint venture” to keep the app operating. “I would like the United States to have a 50 per cent ownership position in a joint venture,” he wrote. “By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to say up.”

Chew’s appearance at the inauguration ceremony is a sign that TikTok and its Chinese parent company still see a chance for the app to get a reprieve from the ban. Both companies and content creators who use the app for their livelihoods sued the U.S. government over the law, and brought their arguments before the Supreme Court in early January, though the justices ultimately upheld the law.

Under the U.S. law, passed last year with bipartisan support, ByteDance had until Jan. 19, the day before the inauguration, to arrange a sale of its U.S. TikTok business or face a ban. ByteDance has said it doesn’t intend to sell the app. TikTok’s U.S. business is valued at an estimated US$40 billion to US$50 billion.

Chew’s relationship with Trump could be key to the app’s survival. After TikTok temporarily went dark in the U.S. over the weekend, the app returned on Sunday following Trump’s pledge that he would not enforce the law. The law forbids tech giants like Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Oracle Corp. from carrying TikTok in their respective app stores or providing the app with necessary cloud and infrastructure support.

“Thanks for your patience and support,” TikTok wrote to users in an in-app notification on Sunday. “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”

Chew, who also visited Trump as his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in December, was not the only significant tech executive at the Washington events. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a close Trump adviser, was also in attendance, as was Meta Platforms Inc. chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon.com Inc. co-founder Jeff Bezos as well as Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s chief executive.