House Dem Says Trump’s TikTok Ban Flip-Flop Could Boil Down to His Popularity On the App: It’s ‘Inflating His Ego’
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) told CNN Friday night that President-elect Donald Trump’s pivot on banning TikTok in the US is either a sign he has been compromised by lobbyists or that his presence on the app has stroked his ego.
In either event, the Massachusetts Democrat called for the video-sharing platform to be banned unless its owner – Beijing-based ByteDance – divests and agrees to sell the app.
Earlier this year, a bipartisan bill supported by President Joe Biden was passed and signed. The statute gave ByteDance until Jan. 19 to offload TikTok or have it banned on American app stores.
Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20 and who previously called for a TikTok ban, filed a brief with the Supreme Court Friday evening in which he asked for a stay.
The president-elect argued he wanted to find time for a diplomatic solution to national security concerns over TikTok. Trump also said recently that he enjoyed his popularity on the app after his campaign joined this year.
On AC360, Auchincloss told guest host Jim Sciutto he did not buy Trump’s argument to the high court.
“What Trump is saying, Jim, about he alone can negotiate a better deal just doesn’t pass the common sense test,” the congressman said. He added:
I think it would be important for Congress to issue a resolution stating that we stand by the original law. And then if he tried to issue an executive order that undermines the effectuating of the law, that Congress would override that as we have the right to do. Now, whether or not my Republican colleagues have the spines to stand up to Donald Trump remains to be seen.
I would say their track record over the last decade does not inspire confidence in that regard. But I absolutely know that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle with whom I helped draft this law, understand that allowing Gen Z to develop their sense of American society from an algorithm dictated by the Politburo in Beijing is a really bad idea. And Donald Trump himself understood that. And the fact that he’s changing his mind now makes me think that his inner circle has been bought and paid for by the TikTok lobby.
Auchincloss concluded he believed Trump might be asking the court not to allow a TikTok ban because he had been told of his popularity on the platform’s servers.
“With Donald Trump, it’s always some combination of two things, Jim. It’s one, flattery and inflating his ego,” he said. “And then number two is the soft corruption and sycophancy of his inner circle. Those two threads can intertwine and they can change American policy.”
Watch above via CNN.
