Trump says he will end TikTok drama, China hawks and legal experts not so sure

TikTok only went dark for its American users for 12 hours this weekend when Donald Trump, the US President-elect, vowed to delay the app’s ban with an executive order. But even his Republican allies, let alone legal experts, say the story’s not over.

During his first term, Trump said more than once that TikTok, the popular video-sharing platform owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, posed a threat to US national security.

On Sunday, the day before his second inauguration, Trump changed his tune. By then, TikTok had shut up shop in the US – ByteDance still hasn’t sold the app’s US operations like the federal law demands, and made the platform go dark in America.

But Trump soon said that “we have to save it,” and wrote on his social network Truth Social: “I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect.”

TikTok reacted swiftly and began restoring access to the app in the US. In a message to users hours before the rally, TikTok said: “As a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the US.”

Back for good? Not necessarily. Of course, politically, it may look like a massive win for Trump who can now brag about saving TikTok. The initial idea is a 90-day extension for TikTok to operate in the US.

The outgoing Joe Biden administration made it clear in recent days that it wasn’t planning to enforce the TikTok ban before Trump took office, and indeed, TikTok executives themselves made the decision to shut down in America.

Trump – who has more than 15 million followers on TikTok – can now take credit for reviving an app with 170 million users in the US alone. They will surely be thankful to him – as well as TikTok which might even try to make sure content on the platform is favorable to Trump.

After all, TikTok CEO Shou Chew met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in December and will be present in Washington for Trump’s inauguration. Chew also thanked Trump “for his commitment to work with us to find a solution” – and we all know that Trump enjoys praise.

Our response to the Supreme Court decision:https://t.co/xSkvkOgpuV

undefined TikTok Policy (@TikTokPolicy) January 17, 2025

Even Republicans aren’t happy now

However, with this video, Chew was actually reacting to the Supreme Court decision to uphold the law ordering the sale of TikTok, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support last April.

So Trump’s legal authority to unilaterally decide on the law’s enforcement is far from clear. Comments from both Republican politicians and legal experts signal that the battle will continue.

First, House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday: “I think we will enforce the law.” With TikTok back in service but not yet available to new users on Apple and Google app stores, this is a real possibility.

The law doesn't grant the president the authority to make a 90-day extension without guarantees that ByteDance is actually seeking to sell the app to a company based in America.

Other Republicans were seemingly unhappy with Trump’s vague suggestion of a deal in which he said the US would have “a 50% ownership position in a joint venture” that would be set up. It’s unclear whether Trump’s proposing control by the US government or a private company.

But the law doesn't grant the president the authority to make a 90-day extension without guarantees that ByteDance is actually seeking to sell the app to a company based in America. That’s why some Republicans are breaking with Trump on this particular issue.

Republican senators Tom Cotton (Arkansas) and Pete Ricketts (Nebraska) encouraged US tech companies to halt operations with ByteDance and TikTok in a joint statement.

“Now that the law has taken effect, there’s no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’ of its effective date. For TikTok to come back online in the future, ByteDance must agree to a sale that satisfies the law’s qualified-divestiture requirements by severing all ties between TikTok and Communist China,” the senators said.

Cotton, who is the Republican chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, also warned US companies to keep away from TikTok because they “could face hundreds of billions of dollars of ruinous liability.”

A Democratic member of the House, Frank Pallone, additionally blasted TikTok: “It is trying to play the victim, but it has nobody to blame but itself. ByteDance has had 270 days to sell TikTok, but they’ve been fighting it since day one because they refuse to give up Communist China’s chokehold on Americans’ data.”

Legal issues aren’t going away

And so, the most important question now is this: can a US president direct his administration not to enforce a law that Congress passed with broad bipartisan support and that the Supreme Court upheld?

Legal scholars seem to disagree. Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, told The Washington Post that the president may simply not have the power to halt enforcement of the law.

“The Supreme Court has said that it is constitutional, and so he would be flouting the law,” Tobias said.

“You just can’t have a system of government where the president says, ‘Congress has overwhelmingly passed this and I’m going to ignore that.’”

Yes, the said law contains a provision that allows the president to delay the divestiture deadline – but only if there’s progress toward a sale. And so far, there are no signs of any meaningful movement.

Besides, according to Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute, an executive order cannot legally override a law that Congress passed because laws enacted through the legislative process take precedence.

That’s why any executive order regarding TikTok would likely be struck down by the courts. And if the drama once again reaches the Supreme Court, the latter has already demonstrated its backbone.

Last week, the Supreme Court upheld the law requiring ByteDance to divest from TikTok or cease operations in the US, even though Trump had earlier asked the judges to pause the ban.