Trump’s support for TikTok stems from his popularity on the app

Democratic Representative, Jack Auchincloss, from the US state of Massachusetts, indicated that President-elect Donald Trump’s opposition to banning “Tik Tok” comes from his popularity on the application, and the influence of this platform’s lobby on his inner circle.

Auchincloss told CNN anchor Jim Siato during his appearance on this station last Friday: “For Donald Trump, it is always a combination of two things. The first is flattery and inflating the ego of the president-elect, and the second is soft corruption and hypocrisy from his inner circle, and it could be “These two issues are intertwined and can change American policy.”

Auchincloss’s statements came just hours after Trump asked the Supreme Court to postpone the final date for a possible TikTok ban, which was scheduled to occur on January 19, one day before the president-elect’s inauguration.

“Only President Trump has the full deal-making experience, electoral mandate, and political will to negotiate a solution to save the platform while addressing national security concerns,” Trump’s personal lawyer, John Sauer, wrote on his social media account.

The nation’s highest court was willing to hear TikTok’s objections to the potential ban on an accelerated timeline, although Trump’s legal team claimed the legislation could be delayed until he takes office next year, and the court would not need to intervene.

Auchincloss, who serves on a House committee dedicated to dealing with the Chinese Communist Party, said last Friday that it would be “important” for Congress to pass a resolution stating that lawmakers stand by the original bill, which President Joe Biden signed in April. Which will require the parent company, ByteDance, which is based in China, to withdraw its investments from TikTok by January, or face a ban in the United States.

“And then, if he tries to issue an executive order that undermines implementation of the law, Congress will override that, as we have the right to do,” Auchincloss added, referring to Trump. “And now it remains the issue of whether my Republican colleagues are able to show enough courage to stand up to Donald Trump.” Or not, this remains to be seen, and I would say that their track record over the past decade does not inspire confidence in this regard.

Trump opposed the law during his 2024 presidential campaign, and repeatedly pledged to save TikTok, but the president-elect has not provided precise steps to protect the application since winning the November elections. During his first term in the White House, Trump threatened to ban the app, and some lawmakers came out against the ban, including Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Auchincloss said that he “knows that his colleagues in the House of Representatives who helped draft this law with him understand that allowing the new generation to develop their sense of American society from an algorithm dictated by the Politburo in Beijing is a really bad idea.”

He added: “Donald Trump himself understood this. “The fact that he is changing his mind now makes me believe that his inner circle has been bought and paid for by the TikTok lobby.”

It was reported that former Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway is being paid by the influential Club for Growth to lobby for TikTok in Congress. Republican Jeff Yass, a major donor, owns a 15% stake in ByteDance. About “Hill” newspaper

. Trump has not taken precise steps to protect TikTok since he won the elections, and during his first term in office he threatened to ban the application.