Former President Donald Trump appeared to come out against a TikTok ban on Thursday amid concerns it would benefit Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook.
Trump previously attempted to ban TikTok in the United States through executive orders, but federal judges ruled against them and President Joe Biden formally rescinded them in 2021. However, as a bipartisan bill to force the app’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest from it gains steam, the former president now seems to be advocating against it. (RELATED: Trump Signs Pair Of Late Night Executive Orders Banning Communications With TikTok, WeChat Parent Companies)
“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!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Lawmakers on Thursday advanced the “Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” which would give ByteDance about five months to sell TikTok for it to continue operating in the United States. The bill would also grant the president authority to force additional companies to divest from their parent companies if they are based in countries that are foreign adversaries, according to a press release.
Zuckerberg’s Chan Zuckerberg Initiative spent hundreds of millions of dollars funding the Center for Tech and Civil Life (CTCL) during the 2020 election.
CTCL sent grants to nearly 2,500 election departments in 47 states to help the administration of elections during the COVID-19 pandemic. The grants drew intense scrutiny from conservative watchdog groups and lawmakers, who perceived the cash as a means of boosting Democratic participation in the elections.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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