from the we-can-just-ignore-laws-now? dept
Keep in mind when TikTok was supposedly an pressing nationwide safety risk that required emergency laws? Humorous how that “emergency” retains getting 75-day extensions.
Trump is reportedly about to hit the snooze button on TikTok enforcement for the third time, extending a deadline that was supposedly so pressing that Congress needed to rush by way of laws ignoring fundamental First Modification protections. This would be the third extension since January — which ought to inform you the whole lot about how “pressing” this nationwide safety risk truly was.
With a mid-June deadline approaching and commerce talks with China in limbo, Trump is anticipated to signal an govt order staving off enforcement of a regulation banning or forcing the sale of the app, based on individuals aware of his plan.
It might be the third extension since Trump took workplace in January. The present one expires June 19.
The sample right here is clear: Biden championed the ban, then refused to implement it on his approach out the door. Trump promised to repair the whole lot with a deal in 75 days, then prolonged that deadline when China predictably balked. Now he’s extending it once more, treating federal regulation like a negotiating chip he can deploy when handy.
Need proof this was by no means actually about nationwide safety? When Trump spoke with Xi Jinping this week about commerce — you recognize, the right alternative to deal with this supposed existential risk — TikTok didn’t even come up.
Trump spoke by cellphone on Thursday with Chinese language President Xi Jinping amid a breakdown in commerce negotiations. The 2 leaders agreed that their groups would maintain a brand new spherical of commerce talks quickly. The Chinese language workforce is led by Vice Premier He Lifeng. The U.S. can be represented by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Commerce Consultant Jamieson Greer, Trump mentioned.
TikTok didn’t come up on the decision Thursday, based on a Trump administration official.
If TikTok actually posed the form of nationwide safety danger that justified circumventing the First Modification (which the Supreme Courtroom mentioned was solely justified based mostly on the supposed severity of the risk), wouldn’t or not it’s a precedence in direct talks with the Chinese language president? As an alternative, it’s apparently not value mentioning.
However, additionally, even when your entire regulation weren’t an ethical panic smokescreen, now we have a extra elementary downside: in a rustic the place the rule of regulation is functioning, presidents don’t get to selectively ignore federal legal guidelines by way of govt order. That’s not how the Structure is meant to work. However Trump is doing precisely that — and worse, he’s utilizing the specter of future enforcement as leverage to engineer his most well-liked final result.
I do know that Trump is making a mockery of the Structure in so many alternative methods proper now, but it surely doesn’t imply that this specific assault on it needs to be ignored.
The TikTok saga has change into an ideal case examine in how ethical panics work: manufacture urgency, rush by way of unhealthy laws, then quietly let it fade when the political winds shift. The one distinction right here is that the regulation continues to be on the books, being wielded like a sword of Damocles over a platform that hosts American speech.
We known as this nonsense from the start, and each snooze button press proves us proper. The true risk to American democracy isn’t children posting dance movies — it’s politicians who deal with the rule of regulation like a sport present the place they get to select which legal guidelines to implement based mostly on what performs nicely on any given day.
Filed Below: donald trump, enforcement, ethical panic, tiktok ban
Corporations: tiktok
