Trump changed his mind about banning Tiktok. Why did he change his mind?

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Before the House of Representatives voted on Wednesday morning to ban the app or force its sale, former President Donald Trump changed his position on TikTok this week. He came out against a plan that would either prohibit the app or force its sale.

There was an attempt made by Trump, while he was in the White House in the year 2020, to prohibit the app from being used in the United States unless it sold itself to an American corporation. The totalitarian government in Beijing was able to access the personal information of American users, according to him at the time, because the company was owned by the Chinese government.

“This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage,” Trump stated in his statement.
It has been stated by TikTok that it will never disclose such information. It has invested $1.5 billion on the construction of Project Texas, which is intended to prevent any attempt by the Chinese government to access the data of American customers by limiting that data to servers located in the United States. On the other hand, there are still some Americans who are afraid that ByteDance would be required to pass up such data if Chinese authorities issued an order.

Trump communicated with CNBC on Monday that he is now opposed to taking steps to separate either the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from TikTok or TikTok from users in the United States.
Trump stated this in an interview with CNBC that was published on Monday. “Frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it,” Trump remarked. Many young children who use TikTok are going to lose their minds if they do not have access to it. TikTok has a large number of users, a large number of positive users, and a large number of negative users.

Trump’s comments came less than two weeks after reports that he met with a billionaire conservative donor who is part-owner of the parent company, Trump is now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and his campaign has not commented directly on the relevance of Trump’s meeting with the donor, but there are other possible explanations for Trump’s flip flop, including his antipathy for Facebook and its creator Mark Zuckerberg, and a desire to appeal to TikTok’s users and investors.

Trump’s comments echo Republican complaints about Facebook

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A ban on TikTok would be beneficial to Facebook, which is a competitor of TikTok, according to Trump, who stated, “and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the American people.” Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook parent company Meta, made payments to nonprofit organizations during the 2020 election. These organizations assist local election offices in improving their technology, educating voters, training poll workers, and increasing voter turnout. He voiced his disapproval of these donations.

It was a reiteration of a message that was published on Truth Social on Thursday, in which Trump claimed that Facebook “cheated in the last election” and referred to Zuckerberg as “Zuckerschmuck.” This is a nickname that is derived from the Yiddish word “schmuck” and is intended to be insulting to Zuckerberg, who is Jewish. CNN Anchor Dana Bash criticized the statement, stating that it was “offensive.”

In a statement released on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign named Steven Cheung stated, “The President also shares concerns about Facebook, which we know has been used to manipulate millions of users and interfere in the 2020 election.” According to Cheung’s statement, neither Trump on Truth Social nor Cheung presented any evidence that this interference had occurred.

During a hearing that took place in February, members of Congress who are Republicans focused their attention on the donations that Zuckerberg had made to the Center for Tech and Civic Life and the Center for Election Innovation and Research. The term “Zuckerbucks” is frequently used by those on the right, despite the fact that the Anti-Defamation League has condemned this nickname for its association with antisemitic stereotypes.

The Republican Party maintains that private funds should not be used to pay election administration, and President Trump contends that the charitable contributions made by Zuckerberg ought to be regarded as illegal campaign contributions. It was decided in 2022 by the Federal Election Commission, which is comprised of members from both parties, that the donations do not constitute illegal campaign contributions.
It was written in 2022 by a writer for the Cato Institute, which is a think tank that leans to the right, that the donations made by Zuckerberg did not have any impact on the outcome of the election that took place in 2020.

Trump’s new stance aligns with conservative advocacy group

According to ABC News, which stated that it got a video footage from the meeting, President Trump met with billionaire Jeff Yass on March 1. The meeting took place at a donor retreat for Club for Growth, a conservative advocacy group that has opposed Trump’s impeachment. Susquehanna International Group, which is Yass’s investment company, purchased a significant portion of ByteDance, which is the parent company of TikTok, in February of 2012.

Additionally, Yass is a significant contributor to the super PAC of the Club for Growth, which is one of the players in the 2024 race and provides funding to a significant number of Trump’s allies in the House and Senate. According to the most recent data from the Federal Election Commission, Yass contributed $23.5 million to Club for Growth Action between the years 2017 and 2020, which was during the period that Trump was in office. Since 2021, Yass has contributed $33.5 million to the organization.

On the other hand, Trump and a significant number of Republicans in Congress were quite critical of TikTok at the time.
In January of 2023, David McIntosh, the president of Club for Growth, delivered a presentation on “the political risk of restricting or banning TikTok,” as reported by National Review. McIntosh also participated in the writing of an opinion piece in 2023 that advocated against the prohibition of TikTok. It has been reported by Politico that Kellyanne Conway, a former advisor to President Trump, is currently working for Club for Growth to campaign for TikTok in Congress.

by significant backing from both parties, a bill that would require China to divest from TikTok or risk a ban was approved by the House of Representatives on Wednesday by a vote of 352 to 65. There are many who believe that China’s participation in the social networking app poses a risk to the nation’s security.

“America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States,” stated Representative Mike Gallagher, a Republican from Wisconsin who is the head of the House select committee on the Chinese Communist Party. These words were spoken by Gallagher. If TikTok does not terminate its partnership with ByteDance, which is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, its time in the United States is gone.

TikTok issued a statement following the passage of the measure, which read as follows: “This process was secret, and the bill was jammed through for one reason: It’s a ban.” We have high hopes that the Senate will take into account the facts, pay attention to the representatives of their voters, and see the impact that this will have on the economy, 7 million small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our service.

A large number of TikTok users, especially groups of activists for issues such as disability rights, are likewise opposed to the establishment of a ban.

Trump’s view aligns with the interests of TikTok investors and users

A large number of TikTok users, especially groups of activists for issues such as disability rights, are likewise opposed to the establishment of a ban.
“The real story behind TikTok is money and politics,” said James Lewis, a China expert and senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which is a neutral organization.

ByteDance, the Chinese company that is the parent company of TikTok, repurchased shares from its current investors in the previous year, thereby valuing the company at more than $200 billion. Quite lately, it initiated a fresh share buyback program. According to Lewis, the company’s objective is to go public; but, if TikTok were to be banned in the United States, the value of the company in an initial public offering would be diminished.
It was said by Lewis that the investors in TikTok would like to receive their money. “They are interested in conducting an initial public offering.”

Lewis stated that wealthy investors such as Yass have a great deal of influence on politicians because of the significance they have to the economy and the fact that they are able to contribute to political campaigns.

ABC News reports that despite the fact that Trump and the Club for Growth had a disagreement regarding endorsements in the Republican primaries, Trump expressed his admiration for Yass and McIntosh during the most recent donor retreat held by the organization. He said, “We’re back in love.”
Yass did not provide a statement for the ABC News article; nevertheless, he had previously stated to The Wall Street Journal that “TikTok is about free speech and innovation, the epitome of libertarian and free market ideals.” When it comes to all that I believe, the concept of TikTok being banned is anathema.

There is a possibility that additional executives who are aligned with Trump have connections to TikTok. In 2016, Oracle CEO Safra Catz was a member of the transition team for President Trump. In 2022, the business software giant was awarded a $1.5 billion contract to act as ByteDance’s “trusted technology provider” and for the purpose of transferring all of the user data belonging to Americans to servers located in the United States.

Trump’s stance could benefit his other interests

Oded Shenkar, a China expert and professor at Ohio State University, believes that Trump’s personal commercial and political interests could potentially be at play in this situation.

Through his association with TikTok, a platform that is widely used by young people, Donald Trump has the potential to draw a younger population to his enterprises, such as a new line of gold sneakers, and to garner support from younger voters.
It is also possible for him to win favor with Beijing.

The Chinese government and state-linked businesses spent more than $5.5 million at Trump Tower in New York and two of Trump’s properties in Washington and Las Vegas while he was president, according to public documents and internal financial data obtained by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. Trump Tower is located in New York City.

According to Shenkar, “TikTok’s owner has made significant lobbying efforts in the United States, which suggests that they would highly value Trump’s conciliatory position towards them.”

Trump campaign is now recalibrating

In his statement released on Tuesday, Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, once again altered Trump’s position, stating that he is concerned about TikTok but does not support the law that is now being considered by Congress.

“President Trump made clear in his CNBC interview this week that he viewed Chinese ownership of Tik Tok as a national security threat, while at the same time appreciating it is an app used and liked by millions of Americans,” Cheung said in his article.
“That’s why the President took strong action in 2020 to protect the privacy and data of American users of Tik Tok as well as establish a framework for Congress to follow to protect Americans from the threats posed by Chinese-owned technology companies operating in the United States,” he stated in his statement.

“President Trump believes Congress must take action to protect the security and privacy of American users on all social media platforms.”