According to The Verge, less than two years ago TikTok faced a massive political crisis with lawmakers calling it “digital fentanyl” and comparing it to Soviet control of American media during the Cold War. The bipartisan bill forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban passed overwhelmingly and became law. But nearly a year after the app should have been kicked out of the US, it remains widely available thanks to intervention from the Trump administration. A promised acquisition by US investors has been stalled for months, and most lawmakers who pushed the ban aren’t talking about why they’re letting the president ignore their own legislation. The Verge reached out to nearly a dozen key lawmakers and only got one comment back.
Where did everyone go?
Here’s the thing that’s really striking about this whole situation. Congress moved at lightning speed by their standards to pass this ban. They held dramatic classified briefings, made grave warnings about national security, and basically created a moral panic around this app. But now that we’re at the actual enforcement stage? Crickets.
When The Verge contacted people like Mike Gallagher, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Ted Cruz, and Josh Hawley – all of whom were super vocal during the ban push – only Senator Maria Cantwell responded. And her comment was basically “we’re still waiting to be briefed.” So Congress passed this huge law and now they’re not even in the loop about what’s happening with it? That’s wild.
Trump’s law-breaking spree
What we’re seeing here is one of the clearest examples of how comfortable Trump is with ignoring laws he doesn’t like. This wasn’t some obscure regulation – it passed with massive bipartisan support and was upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court. Yet he’s just… not enforcing it. And Congress seems too intimidated or distracted to call him on it.
Think about the timeline here. The original deadline hit on Biden’s last day in office, and he punted it to Trump. Then Trump has extended the deadline multiple times while negotiating this questionable deal. The law says “sell or ban” – it doesn’t say “take your time and work out a sweetheart deal for your billionaire friends.”
The deal that might not even work
So what’s actually happening with this TikTok sale? Basically, it looks messy. According to reporting from the New York Times, it’s not even clear China will allow ByteDance to sell TikTok. Trump says Xi Jinping is on board, but there’s been little actual progress.
Even if the sale goes through, there’s a huge problem: the algorithm. The current plan seems to involve licensing TikTok’s algorithm from ByteDance rather than creating a completely new one. But the law explicitly bans any ongoing operational relationship between the US entity and ByteDance. So we might end up with a “sale” that doesn’t actually solve the national security concerns everyone was freaking out about.
Current China Committee Chair John Moolenaar has expressed concerns about this too, saying “anytime you have China with leverage over the algorithm, I think that’s a problem.” But he’s still waiting for details from the White House. Meanwhile, the potential buyers include Larry Ellison, one of Trump’s closest billionaire allies. Convenient, right?
The bigger picture
This whole saga tells us a lot about how Washington actually works versus how it pretends to work. Congress can pass dramatic laws with big speeches and bipartisan fanfare, but when it comes to actual enforcement? They’re often nowhere to be found.
The TikTok ban was supposed to be this major national security victory. Instead, it’s become a case study in presidential power and congressional weakness. Trump gets to look like he’s “saving” a popular app while rewarding his allies, and lawmakers get to avoid the backlash from actually banning something 170 million Americans use.
At this point, does anyone actually believe this deal will address the original concerns about Chinese influence? Or are we just watching political theater where everyone gets what they want except the American people who were promised actual security protections?
