Members of Congress are declaring themselves bewildered by Donald Trump’s latest proposal to save TikTok by brokering a joint-ownership deal.
“I don’t know what he means by that,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), of Trump’s suggestion to broker a “joint venture” in which “the U.S. should be entitled to get half of TikTok.”
“I don’t understand what the president is doing,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Trump has promised to hash out a deal to keep TikTok in business, despite a law that ordered its parent company to divest by last Sunday. His solution is a split-ownership arrangement that may involve the U.S. itself owning a share of the company.
“What I’m thinking about saying to somebody is, buy it and give half to the United States of America,” Trump said at a press conference Tuesday night. “And we’ll give you the permit.”
The idea has managed the unique Washington feat of uniting both supporters and skeptics of the ban, who object to both the idea of joint ownership with China and U.S. ownership of a social-media app at all — and also argue it doesn’t comply with the law’s requirement that ByteDance simply divest the company.
“By the law, it doesn’t allow that. It’s my understanding of the law,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), a staunch Trump ally, told POLITICO.
Paul, who opposes the TikTik ban on free-speech grounds and introduced his own bipartisan bill this week to repeal it, said he was opposed to Trump’s solution: “I’m not for public ownership of any companies,” he said.
Trump’s comments haven’t specified whether half would go to an American owner, or literally half would be owned by America. Trump’s idea also appears to give a role to China in the negotiations and possibly the ownership structure.
“That’d be a forever violation of the law. It wouldn’t be a minor adjustment,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-S.D.). “I think if China has one percent ownership, it’s a violation of the law.”
But it’s also not clear under the law what role Congress can play in stopping Trump.
On the floor Wednesday, Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, pleaded with Trump to take a more collaborative approach on the app’s future.
“Senators and members of Congress want to work with President Trump as he tries to end what is a Chinese overinfluence on such an important national security threat,” she said. “I don’t know that a joint venture with the Chinese is going to rectify this issue about the algorithm.”
