Trump Says TikTok Poses National Security Threat

The TikTok logo is displayed on signage outside the TikTok social media app company offices in Culver City, Calif., on March 16, 2023. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump expressed his conviction that social media app TikTok presents a threat to U.S. national security. However, he reiterated apprehensions that a ban on the application would favor rivals such as Facebook.

In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on March 11, when asked if he considers TikTok a threat to national security, President Trump responded, “I do believe that.

“I do believe it, and we have to very much admit we are protecting American people’s privacy and data rights,” he said.

During his term in office, President Trump worked to prohibit TikTok’s continued use in its current state via an executive order that characterized “the spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in the People’s Republic of China” a threat to “the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.”

However, subsequent to TikTok’s lawsuit, the courts obstructed the action on the grounds that it violated the rights to free expression and due process.

The former president, during the interview, referenced his attempts to ban the Chinese-owned application, saying he ultimately left the decision up to Congress.

“As you know, I was at the point where I could have gotten [the ban] done if I wanted to.”

President Trump did voice concern, however, about how banning TikTok would lead to the growth of Facebook, which he asserted is the “enemy of the people.”

“There’s a lot of good, and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok. But the thing I don’t like is that without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people along with a lot of the media,” he said.

The former president made similar comments on March 7, saying on his social media platform, Truth Social, “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. They are a true Enemy of the People!”

In a unanimous vote on March 7, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce passed two measures to protect the privacy of American citizens’ information and to force the social media company TikTok to sell off its Chinese shares.

The legislation will be able to advance in the House after the committee’s 50–0 vote, but it’s not certain if the entire Congress will show the same level of bipartisan support.

Critical to Halting CCP

The legislation is critical to halting Chinese Communist Party (CCP) endeavors to “target, surveil, and manipulate Americans,” according to Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.).

In order to emphasize the gravity of the matter, the committee decided to use an exemption for national security matters to suspend the rules that would have prevented their markup session from taking place less than seven days after public notification.

The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act would include language that would force the divestment of social media apps determined to be controlled by foreign adversaries that are known to pose a national security threat to the United States, namely TikTok.

A bipartisan bill that would lead to a ban on the U.S. version of the video-sharing app TikTok based on concerns about national security reportedly has the support of President Joe Biden.

If Congress passes the bill, the president told reporters outside Air Force One the following day that he would sign it: “If they pass it, I’ll sign it.”

With a few exceptions for applications related to national security, law enforcement, and security research, President Biden outlawed the use of TikTok on agency-owned devices by the federal government’s approximately 4 million employees in 2022.

Recently, he also signed an executive order authorizing the Department of Justice and other federal agencies to take measures to stop the massive transfer of American personal data to what the administration refers to as “countries of concern,” which includes China.

TikTok did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’s request for comment on the former president’s interview.

The Associated Press and Andrew Thornebrooke contributed to this report.