Colby Hall Points Out Unpopular TikTok Ban Started With Trump Order Late In First Term

As President-elect Donald Trump reportedly considers an executive order to stay the ban on TikTok, set to take effect the day before his inauguration, Mediaite founding editor Colby Hall pointed out that the idea of banning the app started with Trump during his first term.

The bipartisan bill signed by President Joe Biden raised concerns about TikTok’s data collection practices, emphasizing the potential access the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could have to user information owing to the Chinese ownership of TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.

The bill sets a deadline for ByteDance to secure a divestment deal with an investor compliant with stricter data regulations or face a ban in the United States starting Sunday, January 19. In an eleventh-hour Supreme Court ruling on Friday, justices unanimously upheld the law, paving the way for an official ban in a ruling on Friday.

TikTok’s options are now greatly reduced but one way to avoid the ban would be presidential intervention in the form of an executive order, something that Trump is reportedly weighing.

Speaking to NewsNation host Marni Hughes, however, Hall noted that while protecting TikTok was a “great opportunity” for Trump to get a deal done and appeal to young voters who use the app most, the idea is mostly “rhetorical bluster” given that it was Trump who had initially tried to ban the app in the first place.

It’s a great opportunity. I think a lot of that honestly is sort of rhetorical bluster. I mean, let’s not forget that in August of 2020, he signed an executive order to ban TikTok, which was rendered, you know, he didn’t have that power to do it. So the banning of Tik Tok in the United States really started from Trump himself and pro-Trump surrogates.

Then over the course of the last year during the election, the Trump campaign found it a remarkably effective tool for the American First and pro-MAGA agenda. And he knows that this is a very popular service, especially with a crucial youth vote segment. And so now he’s trying to… you know, [incoming national security advisor] Mike Walters was on Fox and Friends earlier this week and saying that he won’t let it go dark under Trump and that they, you know, sort of signaled that he would sign an executive order to stay that.

I don’t know how an executive order can override a law, especially under this Supreme Court. So, yeah, there’s an opportunity for Trump. But of course, Biden is saying, ‘Hey, this is your deal. I’ll let you fix this problem.’ The solution? You know, he’s got a lot of billionaire friends, maybe Elon Musk or Kevin O’Leary. Lots of surrogates are looking to get into this game, whether they can pull the deal.

There’s an opportunity for a big win for Trump, that’s for sure.

Watch above via NewsNation.