Biden Says He Will Punt TikTok Ban to Donald Trump

This weekend, TikTok went dark in the United States after the Supreme Court ruled that legislation passed in the House and Senate was constitutionally legal.

Biden, however, said he would not enforce the ban, preferring to pass the buck to Donald Trump.

Banning TikTok – Round 1

Throughout this TikTok debate, everyone seems to have forgotten that if Donald Trump had his way when he was president for the first time, TikTok would have been banned since 2020.

In August 2020, Donald Trump signed an executive order to place broad sanctions against TikTok, effectively banning the app from being used in this country.

When Trump announced his order, he stated, "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’s order was then challenged, with a preliminary injunction eventually being approved by Judge Carl J. Nichols.

Congress Passes TikTok Ban

When Trump initially announced his order, Democrats were literally laughing at him, calling him paranoid. However, after Trump left office, suddenly, it was Democrats who led the charge for legislation that would ban TikTok in the United States unless it was sold.

The legislation made its way through Congress, and eventually to Joe Biden’s desk, where he signed the legislation.

The legislation, Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, was passed in April 2024, and it was immediately challenged, eventually finding its way to the Supreme Court.

This weekend, the Court announced that the legislation was constitutional and would stand.

Punting to Trump

Even though it was Joe Biden who signed the legislation into law, he announced last week that he would not be enforcing the ban and would punt the enforcement to Trump.

Karine Jean-Pierre stated, “The Administration, like the rest of the country, has awaited the decision just made by the U.S. Supreme Court on the TikTok matter. President Biden’s position on TikTok has been clear for months, including since Congress sent a bill in overwhelming, bipartisan fashion to the President’s desk: TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law.

"Given the sheer fact of timing, this Administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday."

Trump is now being touted by his surrogates as “the only” person that can save TikTok. Trump has also hinted that he may sign an executive order on his first day in office to block the ban. But, let’s just not forget that had Trump not signed that first EO, a ban on TikTok likely never would have been pursued. Trump spilled the milk here, so, no, he does not get credit for throwing a paper towel down on the mess.