House Republican leaders are pushing ahead this week with a planned vote on legislation that would force TikTok’s Chinese owners to divest or face a ban in the United States, even though former President Donald J. Trump reversed the course and declared himself strongly opposed to targeting. the popular social media app he once promised to ban.
Representative Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana and the majority leader, said Monday that the House would try to fast-track the bill under special procedures reserved for non-controversial legislation, which require a two-thirds vote. majority for passage. The strategy reflects the bill’s growing momentum on Capitol Hill during an election year in which members of both political parties are eager to show a willingness to get tough on China.
“We must ensure that the Chinese government cannot weaponize TikTok against American users and our government through data collection and propaganda,” Mr. Scalise said in his weekly preview of the legislation to be considered- for the floor of the House.
The 13-page bill was the product of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, which served as a bipartisan island in the polarized House. The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted unanimously last week to advance the legislation, which would have removed TikTok from app stores in the United States by September 30 unless it sold its Beijing-based stake, the ByteDance.
But Mr. Trump, who as president issued an executive order that did exactly that, now strongly opposes the bill, a move that will test his ability to continue removing bipartisan legislation in Congress from the campaign trail.
Mr. offered Trump on Monday offered a moving explanation for his reversal, saying he did not want to alienate young voters or imbue Facebook, which he considers a mortal enemy, with more power.
In an interview with CNBC, Mr. Trump said he still considered TikTok a national security threat, but that banning it would be “crazy” to young people. He added that any action that harms the platform would benefit Facebook, which he called “the enemy of the people.”
“Honestly, a lot of people on TikTok love it,” Mr. Trump said. “A lot of kids on TikTok would go crazy without it.”
“There’s a lot of good and a lot of bad about TikTok,” he added, “but what I don’t like is that without TikTok, you can make Facebook grow, and I consider Facebook the enemy of the people. , along with a lot of media.”
It is not yet clear whether Mr. Trump’s reversal on the issue will undermine the bill’s broad base of support in the House, where the brewing fight over the legislation has been tense. Many lawmakers were outraged last week when TikTok sent its users to congressional phone lines with calls asking members not to shut down the platform.
“Trump’s flip-flop on TikTok puts House Republicans in a very awkward position because they are forced to choose between supporting Trump or standing up to China,” said Geoff Garin, a Democratic strategist. “Voters on both sides of the aisle don’t trust China to play by any meaningful set of rules and believe that China is determined to get away with anything it can get away with, and that will apply to China’s control of TikTok.”
The law is one of several efforts over the past year aimed at curbing TikTok over concerns that ByteDance’s relationship with Beijing poses national security risks, and President Biden has said he will sign it.
One of the bill’s co-sponsors is Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, the No. 3 Republicans, whose names are on every short list to be Mr. Trump and is rarely caught out of lock step with the former president.
As he marches toward the Republican nomination, Mr. Trump is taking a heavier hand than at any time since he left office on his party’s agenda in Congress. His vocal opposition to the pending TikTok legislation comes just weeks after he used his influence with Republicans in Congress to help save a bipartisan immigration bill in the Senate that was seen as a one-time opportunity for a conservative security law. at the border.
But unlike the immigration issue, the two parties aren’t divided over TikTok; both see the political upside of supporting policies aimed at China.
Still, Mr. Trump’s advocacy against the bill appears to be having some effect. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, told “Meet the Press” that he was “absolutely opposed” to the ban. In 2020, Mr. Graham defended Mr. Trump’s executive action against the company, writing on social media that the president “rightly wants to make sure that the Chinese Communist Party does not own TikTok and more importantly — all your private data .”
On Sunday, Mr. Graham said he did not yet know how he would vote on the bill if it came to the Senate. “I’m really conflicted,” he said.
And it’s unclear what the bill’s prospects are in the Senate, where Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, has not promised to bring it up.
In a rare display of bipartisanship in the House, the top Republican and Democratic lawmakers on the China panel used almost identical language to describe the dangers of TikTok.
“America’s main adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States,” said Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, the Republican chairman. His Democratic counterpart, Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, said that TikTok “poses critical threats to our national security” as long as it is owned by ByteDance.
But after the bill passed through a House committee last week, Mr. Trump criticized Truth Social, his social media platform, writing that “if you take away TikTok,” it would double Facebook’s business. He said he doesn’t want Facebook to “work better.”
Mr. Trump was banned from Facebook the day after Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and was reinstated early last year.
To support his “enemy of the people” claim, Mr. Trump singled out grants that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg made in 2020 to state and local election officials to help them manage the vote. during the pandemic. Mr. suggested Mr. Trump Zuckerberg, whose website was part of Trump’s campaign strategy in both 2016 and 2020, should face prison time for those donations.
On Monday, asked about suspicions that he was “paid off” to change his views on TikTok after a meeting with a major TikTok investor, billionaire Jeff Yass, Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump praise Mr. Yass, a major donor to Club for Growth, as “amazing,” and the group recently had a rapprochement with him after a month-long freeze.
Through Club for Growth, funded by Mr. Yass is a big advocacy drive in Washington to stop the TikTok ban. He and his allies have recruited several former Trump administration officials to help with the effort — including Tony Sayegh, who is a Treasury official, and Kellyanne Conwaywho is a senior counselor to the president.
In the CNBC interview, Mr. Trump said he had not discussed TikTok with Mr. Yass in their meeting.
“No, I didn’t,” said Mr. Trump, saying it was a brief meeting with Mr. Yass and his wife. “He didn’t mention TikTok.”
Mr. Trump’s criticism of the new law is notable given his move to crack down on the company while in office. An executive order he signed in August 2020 said that TikTok’s collection of data from its users “threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party to access the personal and proprietary information of Americans.” It added that TikTok could be used to spread disinformation that benefited Beijing.
“These risks are real,” the executive order said.
Mr. Trump’s administration has moved to block Apple and Google’s app stores from carrying TikTok because of concerns about the app’s Chinese ownership. But federal courts have repeatedly ruled to block Mr. Trump’s TikTok ban from taking effect.
David McCabe and Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.
