Trump will keep TikTok running……

The law requiring TikTok to become an American owned company allows the President to extend a 90 day extention ….

Trump has had it in for China …..

And TikTok….

This whole thing is about the National Security of the United States….

Trump has also had it for the American National Security Community…..

This move will get Trump points by a whole LOT of American people….

Security?

Hmmmmm?

 

President-elect Trump said he will sign an executive order Monday to delay enforcing the U.S. ban on TikTok, just hours after the popular app went dark.

The big picture:

Trump, who once spearheaded the effortto see TikTok banned, pushed for it to be saved as the deadline, decided by a bipartisan law, neared.

Driving the news: “I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security,” Trump wrote in a Sunday Truth Social post.

• He added the order will also “confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.”
• Trump said he’d like the U.S. to have a “50% ownership position” in a joint venture “between the current owners and/or new owners” to save TikTok.
• “By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to [stay] up,” he wrote. “Without U.S. approval, there is no TikTok.”

Reality check: The law, which President Biden signed in April, required that ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, sell the app to an approved buyer by Jan. 19 to avoid being banned.

• It’s unclear if Trump wants the U.S. government or a U.S. company to have 50% ownership, and how exactly he plans to circumvent the law as an executive order can’t override it.

Context: The divest-or-ban law does allow the president to initiate a 90-day extension, but only if there is “significant progress” toward divestiture and binding legal agreements in place to facilitate a deal.

• There is no known deal in the works for purchasing TikTok, though investor Kevin O’Leary has offered $20B…..

More….