Trump saved TikTok – for now. Guess it's not a national security threat anymore? | Opinion
The truth is Trump never really cared about national security. He's enamored with being the savior of TikTok in hopes of further attracting youth to the MAGA movement.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Monday aimed at stalling the TikTok ban in the hopes of working out a way to save the app going forward.
In doing that, he is attempting to bypass congressional action upheld by the Supreme Court, all to stop a ban that he was one of the first to propose.
Not only does Trump’s delay of a TikTok ban circumvent the law itself, it shows he never actually cared about national security in the first place. The ban should be enforced, and Trump has no business letting the app continue to operate free of any changes.
Trump has no real argument for bypassing the TikTok ban
The TikTok ban overwhelmingly passed Congress with bipartisan support. The initial committee vote among House members who saw classified information on the threat that TikTok faces voted 50-0 to advance.
Last week, the Supreme Court upheld the ban despite TikTok’s argument that it violates the First Amendment.
A provision in the ban itself allows for a 90-day extension if significant progress toward a ban has been made, but TikTok has made it abundantly clear that they have no interest in divesting from parent company ByteDance, based in Beijing.
Instead, Trump has instructed the attorney general not to enforce the ban, thereby circumventing the legislation altogether. The president is responsible for executing the law, and willfully neglecting that responsibility is a dangerous road to venture down.
If one of the largest social media platforms in the United States would rather shut down than sell, we should allow and force them to. The only reason a multibillion dollar company would rather shut down than sell is to hide the secrets within.
Despite all of this, Trump has decided that the best course of action is to delay the shutdown of TikTok, even though he was one of the first to endorse a ban. His reason for the delay is that he wants to broker a sale, but that doesn’t explain his flipping from leading the charge on a ban to trying to save it.
Trump never actually cared about national security
In 2020, Trump attempted to ban the app through an executive order, which was subsequently overturned by legal challenges. At the time, Trump cited national security to justify a ban.
Since his initial attempt to ban the platform, Trump has become more sympathetic toward TikTok as his supporters have cemented their presence on the platform.
“We won the young vote, I think I won it through TikTok,” said Trump during a December news conference. “So I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok.”
He now appears to be enamored with being the savior of TikTok in hopes of further attracting the youth to the MAGA movement.
The truth is that Trump never really cared about national security. Back when he first endorsed a ban, it's far more likely his motivation was silencing a prominent platform for Democratic activists rather than truly a concern around national security.
If the concern were national security, then Trump would have no problem allowing the ban to go through, allowing American companies to fill the void left by TikTok. Instead, Trump is not prioritizing the chief concern associated with the ban, opting to try to save a platform he believes he is now popular on.
Trump, per usual, is putting his own interests above those of the American people, subverting the law in the process. The ban should be enforced, and TikTok should no longer operate in the United States. Anything less is a dereliction of duty.
Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for Paste BN and a graduate of DePaul University with a degree in political science.