The law, which the Supreme Court unanimously upheld Friday, leaves the interpretation of a “qualified sale” up to the president. In his latest post, Trump seemed to explain what meets that definition for him.
“I would like the United States to have 50% ownership in the joint venture,” Trump said, acknowledging the move would “save TikTok.” Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on whether ownership should be held by a U.S.-based company or by the U.S. government itself.
Still, ByteDance has never indicated that TikTok is actually for sale, nor has it disclosed its valuation. The company is reluctant to sell, so a 50% joint venture may be preferable to losing 100% ownership of TikTok.
A qualified sale would give TikTok’s service providers far more peace of mind than simply a long period of non-execution.
The Truth About President Trump Sunday’s social posts also confirmed that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said earlier Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that President Trump’s intentions were, “The president is trying to force policy. This seemed to contradict what he said he believed in, “to move forward.” “True sale, change of hands, ownership before TikTok is allowed back online in the US.”
“I think we will enforce the law,” he said.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) echoed Johnson in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” but said he was satisfied with the 90-day extension.
“If someone else is going to buy TikTok and ByteDance is going to do anything other than no longer own TikTok, it seems to me that the law needs to change. And if that’s justified. “If that’s the case, I think Congress will consider it under President Trump’s leadership.”
“I think we’re open to and open to different scenarios as to how it gets resolved. But at this point, the law is the law, and of course these companies We need to abide by the law,” he added.
Also on Sunday, President Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Rep. Mike Walz (R-Fla.), told CNN that Trump’s intention was to reach out to various stakeholders and bring the app “back online.” “The idea was to buy time to preserve it,” he said.
“This gives confidence to technology companies, app stores, providers, cloud storage, etc. that they’re going to work towards some kind of agreement to keep things from getting dark. That’s what we’re going to see in the next 24 hours. I think so,” Walz said.
He added, “We’re literally working in real time with a variety of tech companies to buy (President Trump) time to get data back online and preserve it, while at the same time keeping Americans’ data… “We are committed to protecting Americans and protecting them from attacks of all kinds.” It’s foreign interference. ”
President Trump first asked the Supreme Court for an extension last month when he filed amicus briefs in the TikTok lawsuit challenging the ban.
In a brief, he asked the Supreme Court to suspend the ban on the app, which went into effect the day before his inauguration, and to work with the app to find ways to keep it online legally in the United States. I asked for it.
The court upheld the law Friday, rejecting TikTok’s challenge and Trump’s petition.
In response to the court’s decision, Presidential Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement: “Given the sheer facts of timing, we now believe that action to implement this law should be left to the next government, which takes office on Monday. The government is aware of this.”
Still, those guarantees weren’t initially enough for TikTok, which announced late Friday that it would continue to comply with the ban.
Trump’s support for TikTok is an almost complete reversal from his position during his first term, when he pledged to ban TikTok.
“As far as TikTok is concerned, we ban them from the United States,” he told reporters in July 2020. “We can do that through an executive order or something.”
On August 6, 2020, President Trump signed an executive order banning TikTok after 45 days. The order faced legal challenges, and TikTok won an injunction against the order in late September of the same year. When President Joe Biden took office four months later, he rescinded the executive order.
The anti-TikTok rhetoric comes after several months of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle sharing concerns about privacy and national security related to the app. Then, in December of last year, the Army and Navy banned their members from using TikTok on government-owned devices.
In 2022, House staff and members will also be prohibited from using TikTok on government-issued devices. And just weeks earlier, the Senate had voted to ban all federal employees from using it on government-owned devices.
In an interview with CNBC last March, President Trump downplayed concerns that TikTok posed a national security threat because of its ties to China, saying that U.S. social media companies face similar risks. He said that
“We have the same problem as other companies. We have the same problem with Facebook and many other companies. It’s about information. They have a lot of information and they don’t do business with China. “We will do whatever China wants,” Trump said.
“If you look at some of the companies in America, when you talk about advanced, sophisticated companies that you think are American, they’re not very American. They’re doing business with China, and they’re “It’s also a national security risk because if you want something from them, they’ll give it to you,” he added.
