Trump’s TikTok order tests Republicans

Some experts — and even some Republicans — have questioned the legality of Trump’s order, which tells the US attorney general not to enforce the law for 75 days in order for him to determine an “appropriate course forward” that “protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform used by millions of Americans.”

The group of prospective TikTok buyers that’s led by O’Leary and billionaire Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty says it has the necessary financing for a deal, with “expressions of interest” from private equity firms and wealthy individuals. But with TikTok’s US operations potentially valued at $50 billion, according to some estimates, a buyer would need the kind of deep pockets that are more in line with big, cash-rich tech firms.

Complicating matters further was a recent suggestion by Trump’s new national security advisor, former GOP Rep. Mike Waltz, that ByteDance be allowed to keep owning the application, so long as it provided assurances that TikTok’s data and algorithm were fully protected from Chinese government interference. The idea drew immediate pushback from Republicans.

“Go back to the details of the law,” Kim said. “It’s very clear the whole purpose was divesture outside of the ByteDance ownership. So we cannot give even 10%, 20%, 50% to ByteDance.”

Without directly raising Waltz’s comments, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., sounded skeptical that TikTok could meet the “burden of proof” that would be required for it to pan out.

“The law says that TikTok has to show us categorically, unequivocally, that they do not have the ability to share Americans’ data with the Communist Party of China,” Kennedy told Semafor.

Whether Republicans would consider revisiting the law they passed just months ago, however, is another matter. As shaky as Trump’s 75-day order may be, legal experts were also unsure that a credible challenge could materialize to threaten it.

“Opponents of Trump would be on firm legal ground” to challenge the order, said Sarah Kreps, a law professor at Cornell University and director of the school’s Tech Policy Institute. “But do those would-be opponents have political motivation to initiate these challenges?”

Anupam Chander, a Georgetown Law School professor and specialist in global tech regulation, pointed out that former President Barack Obama extended the deadline to implement the Affordable Care Act’s employer health insurance mandate “without any statutory authorization to do so.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., summed up the quandary for Republicans.

“I’m hopeful that the law is the law. And ultimately it’s going to have to be followed,” he told reporters on Wednesday. If it can bring around a buyer, which it was designed to do, then we’ll see. But I think we’re living on borrowed time with TikTok.”

Notably, top Democrats are also staying optimistic about a divestiture that spares TikTok — which would prevent the political blowback from either a shutdown of the app or the appearance of a Congress that’s waffling on national security.

“I hope that we can move forward on a divestiture and a US acquisition,” Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, told Semafor when asked about Trump’s order. “Everybody thinks there’s a national security threat, so now all you have to say to China is, ‘Quit screwing with US citizens, and here’s how a deal can get struck.’”

“We’ve given him the tools, he just needs to implement the law,” she added.

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., a cosponsor of the original ban-or-divest bill and his party’s top member on the China committee, said simply: “We need to save TikTok.

“ByteDance divesting remains the only real solution to protect our national security and guarantee Americans access to TikTok,” he added.

The relatively weak Republican pushback to Trump’s softened approach to TikTok — which he wanted to ban during his first term — is further proof of his airtight grip on the party.

But you don’t see Democrats champing at the bit either to criticize Trump for delaying the ban at the expense of a bipartisan law. That’s probably in part because Democrats were in their own TikTok bind before Trump took office, as Biden also searched for a means to delay a ban that could hurt their party’s position with younger voters.

So it may be that TikTok’s sale by ByteDance is the one Trump goal that everyone in Washington is rooting for him to accomplish. Lawmakers on both sides are reaping what they’ve sowed, which can come with unpredictable consequences.