House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday dismissed suggestions that President-elect Donald Trump will bring TikTok back early in his second term without the company being sold to a U.S. owner.
“I think we’re going to enforce the law,” Johnson said Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” a day after Trump told NBC News, He’s ‘likely’ to give TikTok a 90-day extension Operating in the United States
Johnson’s comments came hours after TikTok Cease operations in the United Statescutting off the user’s access to the application. Meanwhile, Apple, Google and Microsoft removed the app from their app stores, preventing new users from downloading it.
A bipartisan bill passed last year and signed by President Joe Biden took effect on Sunday, effectively banning TikTok in the United States if the app, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is not sold to U.S. owners.
Over the past few months, TikTok has made a last-ditch effort to the Supreme Court to save itself from a ban, but the court upheld the law on Friday.
Trump, who supported a ban on TikTok during his first term, now supports allowing the app to continue operating in the United States. Ask the court to suspend the lawsaid it would give his new administration time to find a solution.
The ban takes effect the day before Trump takes office for his second term.
On Saturday, the president-elect told NBC News that he would “most likely” Giving TikTok a 90-day extension to avoid being banned once he takes office is something the senators specifically disagreed with in their statement.
“I think that’s certainly an option that we’re looking at,” Trump said in a phone interview. “A 90-day extension is the most likely thing to get done because it’s appropriate. You know, it’s appropriate. We have to be careful. Think about it. This is a very big situation.”
Johnson noted that he believed Trump had been referring over the past few months to plans to revive the app through sales, rather than the way it operates now.
“When President Trump puts out a truth post and says ‘Save Tiktok,’ our interpretation is that he is going to try to force a real divestment, change of hands, and ownership,” Johnson said on Sunday.
“It’s not the platform that members of Congress are worried about. It’s the Chinese Communist Party and its manipulation of algorithms – they’ve been feeding American children horrific messages that glorify violence and anti-Semitism and even suicide and eating disorders. I mean, This is crazy stuff, they’re mining American citizens’ data and it’s a very dangerous thing,” he added.
Shortly before Johnson’s comments, Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., also broke with Trump to celebrate the app’s ban taking effect on Sunday.
“We commend Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft for complying with the law and ceasing business with ByteDance and TikTok, and we encourage other companies to do the same. After all, any company that violates this law risks devastating bankruptcy,” Don and Ricketts wrote in a statement.
“Now that the law has taken effect, there is no legal basis for any form of ‘extension’ of its effective date. In order for TikTok to come back online in the future, ByteDance must agree to conduct a sale that meets the qualifying divestiture requirements of the law, severing TikTok’s ties to the Communist Party all links between communist China,” they added.
The law as written does not give the president the power to extend the 90-day period without guaranteeing that ByteDance is actually seeking to sell the app to a U.S. company.
The law states: “The President may extend the period for a period of not more than 90 days on a one-time basis… if the President certifies to Congress that—(A) a path has been established to effectuate a qualified divestiture with respect to such an application.” It adds that there must be “significant consequences” in the sale. evidence of progress,” including “binding relevant legal agreements” that “facilitated” the sale.
On Sunday, Johnson said he had “no confidence whatsoever” in ByteDance.
“The law is very precise, and the only way to extend it is if there’s a real deal in the works,” Johnson added. “I think President Trump is probably interested in all this because, as you know, he likes to make deals. So we’re very hopeful that this can happen and that the 270 million Americans who love this platform can enjoy it, but enjoy it securely protecting their data and not allowing the enemies of our country to steal their data.
