Trump

Molly Butler / Media Matters

Trump’s corrupt TikTok flip-flop exposes his craven national security cabinet

His top advisers have called the platform a “Trojan Horse” by Chinese “communists” to “destroy America” and “poison” young minds

Written by Matt Gertz

Published

President-elect Donald Trump has corruptly flipped on his previous position that TikTok should be banned in the United States unless the social media platform disentangles from Chinese government control. His stark reversal — which one ally suggested came about because the app was “great for his campaign” — stands in contrast to the public statements of his top foreign policy, homeland security, defense, and intelligence appointees, who are on the record describing a TikTok ban as a crucial matter of national security and in some cases denouncing Democrats for using the platform.

Then-President Trump issued an August 2020 executive order requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell, spin off, or shut down the app’s U.S. operations, citing “credible evidence” the company “might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.” President Joe Biden ultimately rescinded the order, but following further reporting of Chinese government influence over TikTok, in April 2024 Congress passed and Biden signed bipartisan legislation requiring ByteDance’s divestment. ByteDance refused, instead preparing to shut down TikTok in the U.S. by the law’s deadline of this Sunday.

But Trump subsequently rejected the position he had once championed and is now poised to take action “to keep TikTok from going dark.” After a March 2024 meeting with hedge fund manager Jeff Yass, a GOP megadonor who reportedly held a major financial stake in ByteDance, Trump abruptly reversed his support for TikTok’s divestment, saying that “young people will go crazy without it.” The platform also reportedly altered its algorithm to benefit Trump’s presidential campaign, which used TikTok to great effect; indeed, in a January 15 interview, incoming national security adviser Michael Waltz said Trump would sign an executive order to “create the space” for a “deal” in part because TikTok “was great for [Trump's] campaign and getting his message out."

This abrupt reversal exposes as craven hypocrites not only Waltz, but also Trump’s nominees for secretary of state, Marco Rubio; defense, Pete Hegseth; and homeland security, Kristi Noem. The four are among the right’s harshest critics of TikTok and foremost proponents of banning it. They describe the platform as a Chinese “Trojan Horse” that “the communists” are using to “compromiz[e] national security” and “propagandize to 150 million Americans,” allowing them to “poison the minds of young Americans” and get kids to “trans themselves” as part of China’s “long-term goal to destroy the United States.”

Moreover, Noem was the first governor to ban state employees from using the platform on state-owned devices, while Rubio introduced legislation banning it nationally if it was not sold.

Either they were all lying about the pressing national security threat of a ByteDance-controlled TikTok back then, or they are willingly leaving the United States exposed because they don’t want to stand up to the incoming president.

  • Michael Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser: TikTok is “an arm of the communists” that threatens “the safety of all Americans”

    Waltz: We can’t let the Chinese Communist Party use TikTok to “propagandize to 150 million Americans ... . We would have never stood for this with the Soviet Union.” Waltz, then a member of Congress, said of TikTok in a March 2023 Fox Business appearance, “We cannot have, on the one hand, our greatest adversary ... have access to 150 million Americans, be able to propagandize to 150 million Americans, and to be able to collect [data] on us. We would have never stood for this with the Soviet Union. We shouldn't be today.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria, 3/23/23]

    Waltz: The Biden campaign “should be ashamed of themselves” for joining TikTok and “legitimiz[ing] this app and the harm it’s doing to kids for its own political gain.” When Biden’s campaign joined TikTok in February 2024, Waltz told Fox the campaign “should be ashamed of themselves” because “the Chinese Communist Party are using this as a data-collection bonanza” and could use it as a “superhighway” to “adjust the algorithms should they so choose.” He added that a presidential campaign should not “legitimize this app and the harm it’s doing to kids for its own political gain.” He added that he’s “called for a full-on ban” of the app, calling it “long overdue” because “we should not allow our greatest adversary to access 150 million Americans and their data.” [Fox News, Your World, 2/23/24]

    Waltz on X: TikTok is “an arm of the communists” and must be removed from Chinese government control “for the safety of all Americans,” and it’s “craven” for Democrats not to ban it. Waltz, in dozens of posts to X over five years, has repeatedly criticized TikTok and called for a ban on the platform, warning that it’s “an arm of the communists,” “Chinese spyware and a national security threat,” and “a Chinese Communist Trojan Horse.” In August 2020, he posted, “For the safety of all Americans, including the millions of children using this app, we cannot allow TikTok in the US under ByteDance’s ownership.” He accused members of Congress, “almost all Democrats,” who use the app of being “complicit in allowing China to hurt our national security” and posted that “it would be craven for Biden & Democrats not to ban TikTok because it helps their campaigns.”

  • Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state: TikTok a “Trojan Horse” and “danger to America”

    Rubio: We should ban TikTok to keep a “wholly-owned subsidiary of the Communist Party of China” from using it as “a danger to America.” In a 2022 Fox interview to discuss a bill he introduced to ban TikTok if it were not sold, then-Sen. Rubio said TikTok can’t be allowed to continue as “wholly owned subsidiary of the Communist Party of China,” in part because “the Chinese tried to interfere in our midterm elections” using the platform. He further called its ownership “a privacy danger to America, to our national security,” adding that “we shouldn't have the Communist Party of China having access to a treasure trove of American data that they can use to try to influence and divide us at the same time as they collect valuable information now and for the future.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 12/14/22]

    Rubio: A ByteDance-owned TikTok is “a Trojan horse living inside our country.” He explained during a March 2024 Fox appearance that TikTok’s parent company is “under the complete control” of “a foreign government that’s hostile to the United States” and could “decide to weaponize that against us to convince soldiers not to go fight, to convince their families that it's not worth going to fight, to get involved in our elections, to spread things that make us fight against each other and further divide this country or keep us distracted, or to convince American teenagers to kill themselves because the world's about to end.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 3/11/24]

    Rubio: We can’t let the Chinese Communist Party use TikTok to “poison the minds of young Americans … so that their society crumbles.” Rubio called for ByteDance to sell TikTok during a March 2024 Fox appearance, explaining that “ByteDance is a Chinese company” and under that country’s laws, “if the Chinese Communist Party goes to ByteDance and says, we want you to change the TikTok algorithm so that Americans will not be willing to defend Taiwan or surrender to China on this and that, or poison the minds of young Americans over a long period of time so that their society crumbles, if they tell them that they have to do that, ByteDance will have to do that, they will do that, and you will not be able to perceive it.” [Fox News, Hannity, 3/19/24]

  • Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense: TikTok is “poisoning the minds” of American kids

    Hegseth: “Someone’s got to step up and say” TikTok “is compromising national security” and “poisoning the minds” of kids and “ban this.” Hegseth, then the host of Fox & Friends’ weekend edition, said of TikTok in March 2023, “This is time for leadership. I don't care how many kids use it, I don’t care how many influencers are out there, someone’s got to step up and say, not one is it compromising national security — which it is; who knows where that data is going and how it will be used in the future — but it’s poisoning the minds of our next generation.” He added: “Think how much time you spend cultivating the mind and soul and heart of your child and then you hand over a phone and then on that phone is an app controlled by communists who are pumping things to poison their mind. Wake up!” He further called for “courageous leadership” in Congress, “especially Democrats,” to “ban this.”  [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 3/24/23]

    Hegseth: China uses TikTok to “poison” American kids and get them to “trans themselves,” and it’s “like giving the Soviets a portal into our kids in the ‘80s.” Hegseth, then the host of Fox & Friends’ weekend edition, alleged in a February 2024 segment that China was trying to “poison” American children by using TikTok to get them to “dance and trans themselves and be distracted” while Chinese children are taught science and math. He went on to say that “the fact that we allow this is one of many, but actually near the top of the list, of the most foolish things we are doing in our society,” adding that TikTok is “like giving the Soviets a portal into our kids in the ‘80s. It’s insane!” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 2/1/24]

  • Kristi Noem, Trump’s nominee for secretary of homeland security: “If you are using TikTok, you are helping China destroy America"

    Noem: China uses TikTok on kids “to manipulate their thoughts and their minds and how they feel about the United States of America.” Noem, who as governor made South Dakota the first state to ban TikTok on state-owned devices, said during a March 2023 Fox appearance that China is “using that platform to spy on our people, to communicate with them,” and “to change perceptions.” She went on to say that parents should tell children who use TikTok “to knock it off. Tell them they slept in their beds last night safe and secure because of sacrifices that were made for this country, and that, to respect that, they should not allow our enemies to come right into their homes and to manipulate their thoughts and their minds and how they feel about the United States of America.” [Fox News, Sunday Morning Futures, 3/12/23]

    Noem: TikTok is part of China’s “long-term goal to destroy the United States.” During another March 2023 interview, Noem said that the Chinese Communist Party uses TikTok “to influence our children, to spy on us, gather personal data, and they’re doing it to destroy us.” She added that “China has a long-term goal to destroy the United States of America” and that “when I watch people talk about how much they enjoy TikTok, I'm concerned Americans aren't even willing to be inconvenienced anymore to protect their freedom.” She went on to say that she didn’t think Biden would sign the bill banning TikTok because “over and over again this president has proven that he won’t protect America.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 3/24/23]

    Noem: “If you are using TikTok, you are helping China destroy America. You are facilitating it. So get off of TikTok.” During a November 2023 Fox interview, Noem agreed that TikTok is a “national security threat” and a “spy mechanism.” She concluded: “If you are using TikTok, you are helping China destroy America. You are facilitating it. So get off of TikTok. Take a little bit of pause on what you think is fun and let's start doing the hard work of saving freedom.” [Fox News, Hannity, 11/29/23]