President Donald Trump has tapped Vice President JD Vance to steer the cost on the high-stakes sale of TikTok forward of a looming April deadline that will see the app completely shuttered in the US.
JD Vance and Trump
It makes some sense that Trump would give Vance the position, provided that he’s a former enterprise capitalist and was beforehand behind investments for platforms comparable to Rumble, which emerged as an alternative choice to YouTube.
However this gained’t be a simple activity, as Vance must navigate issues from nationwide safety hawks from his personal celebration, comparable to Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee. Plus, there might be intense fallout if Vance fails, particularly contemplating 170 million Individuals use the app and will discover themselves minimize off.
Then once more, earlier this week, Trump signed one other one in every of his notorious govt orders making the Treasury and Commerce Division create a “sovereign wealth fund” for the U.S. and advised the cash acquired by the fund might purchase a 50% stake in TikTok. This, he mentioned, would enable TikTok to function within the states, doubtlessly with the app’s present homeowners or new ones.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew sits earlier than the sixtieth Presidential Inauguration within the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 20, 2025
It’s essential to recollect how we bought right here. TikTok’s troubles started after Congress handed a bipartisan invoice that was later signed into regulation by former President Joe Biden, mandating the app’s Chinese language proprietor ByteDance promote the app to a U.S. entity or be shut down. The ban was over issues that the Chinese language authorities might manipulate content material and acquire entry to delicate person information by the app.
Whereas Trump tried to ban the app in 2020, he later got here to its protection and signed an govt order on his first day in workplace to pause enforcement of the regulation for 75 days. That grace interval will quickly expire, although, on April 5, and ByteDance has expressed little curiosity in promoting.
However with TikTok again on-line after shutting down for lower than at some point, the corporate launched into a goodwill tour aimed toward welcoming Trump forward of his second White Home stint. Not solely did TikTok’s CEO, Shou Chew, attend the president’s January inauguration, however the app additionally sponsored a pre-inauguration bash in Trump’s honor.
Now, Vance might be in control of “quarterbacking a deal to save TikTok,” which was initially pushed by the best however enabled by Democrats. Hopefully, he’s too busy defending racists to have time to dealer a sale, and any blame for TikTok’s downfall falls again on Republicans since they’re those who bought us right here.
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