Former President Donald Trump detailed why he had changed his position on banning TikTok, despite widespread support for a ban from members of Congress.
The former president outlined his thoughts about the social media company on CNBC on Monday morning, days after he publicly opposed a ban.
‘Frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it,’ he said during an interview on CNBC. ‘There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it. There are a lot of users, there’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok.’
Donald Trump said he was opposed to the bill from Congress that would ban TikTok from the United States
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company subject to the Chinese government.
Trump reiterated his concerns that a TikTok ban would only make social media platforms like Facebook more powerful.
‘The thing I don’t like is that without TikTok you’re going to make Facebook bigger and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people along with a lot of the media,’ Trump said.
He said that he still had national security and privacy concerns about TikTok but that he also had the same concerns about American companies.
‘I do believe that, and we have to very much go in to privacy and make sure that we are protecting the American people’s privacy and data rights,’ he said.
Trump argued that Facebook and other American social media platforms also shared data with China.
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer and founder of Facebook Inc., speaks during an event at the company’s headquarters
Members of Congress continue pushing for a TikTok ban, warning the platform is bad for national security
‘They’re not so American, they deal in China and if China wants anything from them they will give it so that’s a national security also,’ he said.
Trump said he had concerns about Facebook, particularly after CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife donated at least $400 million to non-profit organizations who helped fund upgrades to election systems to allow voting by mail and change voting protocols during the 2020 election.
‘I think Facebook has been very bad for our country especially when it comes to elections,’ he said.
Trump disputed claims that he changed his position on TikTok after meeting with billionaire investor Jeff Yass, who has a very large financial stake in the platform.
He said he that he only met with Yass very briefly, and did not talk about TikTok.
‘He never mentioned TikTok,’ he said, adding he mostly spoke to Yass’s wife about the issue of school choice, which he supported.
Last Thursday, Trump surprised conservatives after he voiced opposition to a TikTok ban.
‘If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better,’ Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Monday. ‘They are a true Enemy of the People!’
Momentum for a TikTok ban was renewed last week by Republicans after the House Commerce Committee voted 50-0 to move a bill ordering TikTok’s owner ByteDance to sell the company. ByteDance is controlled by the Chinese government, raising national security concerns.
The vote sparked TikTok to mobilize their users, urging them to contact members of Congress to protest. Thousands of children called to members of congress, some of them crying while demanding that they oppose the bill.
President Biden surprised TikTok users after he endorsed the bill banning the platform.
President Joe Biden looks down at his phone while walking from the West Wing to Marine One
The Biden campaign in January created a TikTok account on the platform for the president
‘If they pass it, I’ll sign it,’ Biden told reporters on Friday, even as his campaign works to engage TikTok users.
In January, The Biden campaign created a TikTok account for the president ahead of the 2024 election. Trump and his campaign do not have a TikTok account on the platform.
Trump famously pushed an effort to ban TikTok when he was president, issuing an order in August 2020 when he was president, ordering ByteDance to sell the social media platform within 45 days, citing the executive’s emergency powers.
The order was blocked by a federal judge on the basis that Trump’s order overstepped his authority. Biden revoked the executive order after he became president in 2021.
On CNBC Monday, Trump said he ‘could have banned TikTok’ when he was president, but ultimately left it up to Congress, which he admitted was subject to lobbyists.
‘They are like extremely political and they’re extremely subject to people called lobbyists who happen to be very talented, very good, and very rich,’ he said.