Trump Comes to TikTok’s Defense AGAIN in All-Caps Plea: ‘TIKTOK IS LESS OF A DANGER TO THE USA THAN META’

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Former president Donald Trump came to TikTok’s defense yet again on Thursday as the Chinese-owned social media platform tries to navigate a bipartisan effort to either compel its parent company to sell it, or ban it in the United States.

While Trump had previously expressed an interest in banning the platform during his first term, he’s come out against the more recent movement to force a sale.

“TIKTOK IS LESS OF A DANGER TO THE USA THAN META (FACEBOOK!), WHICH IS A TRUE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE. THEY SPENT $500,000,000 AGAINST ME AND OUR GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY, ‘LOCKBOXES’ AND ALL, AND SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO DO THAT. TIKTOK DIDN’T,” wrote Trump on Truth Social. “LIKE CROOKED JOE BIDEN, FACEBOOK IS A GREAT THREAT TO DEMOCRACY, AND IT WILL ONLY GET BIGGER AND STRONGER IF TIKTOK IS TAKEN OUT. DO THEM BOTH? – AND RESTRICT THE MONEY ALLOWED TO BE SPENT ON POLITICS, AND LOCKBOXES, BY META/FACEBOOK!!!”

Trump had previously expressed a similar antipathy toward both Meta and the anti-TikTok legislation last week.

“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,” declared Trump at the time. “They are a true Enemy of the People!”

While the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the measure opposed by Trump earlier this week, several virulently pro-Trump members of Congress, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), voted against the bill. The legislation faces an uncertain fate in the Senate, but is being supported by President Joe Biden.

Axios has floated the possibility that Trump’s flip-flop was motivated his relationship with billionaire donor Jeff Yass, who owns a stake in TikTok’s parent company. And on Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Yass was on the shortlist to serve as Trump’s Treasury Secretary should he win the election against Biden in November.