Having spent a good part of my career working on national security and rule of law issues for the U.S. military, the federal government and the state of Massachusetts, I am increasingly concerned about President Donald Trump’s failure to require ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to sell the app as required by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court.
For several years, the national security community has raised concerns that TikTok, the mobile app that a hundred million Americans – mainly younger people – have installed on their phones and tablets to create and share short videos, is owned by the Chinese controlled ByteDance. TikTok collects vast amounts of user data, including personal information, browsing history, and location data. Access to so much data and the potential for algorithm manipulation could be exploited for espionage or other malicious activities.
The concern is bipartisan, leading lawmakers on Capitol Hill to pass legislation that makes it unlawful for “foreign adversary-controlled applications” to be distributed or maintained in the U.S. In a similarly rare moment of consensus, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the required sale writing, “Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”
Nevertheless, since taking office, President Trump has issued three executive orders delaying the implementation of this law, the most recent of which is set to expire on September 17th.
To be fair, President Trump was forced to confront the Supreme Court’s ruling his first day in office after the platform briefly went dark and perhaps needed some time to craft a solution. Still, it has been more than six months, and it is unconstitutional for any president to issue an executive order attempting to overturn a law passed by Congress, enacted into law, and upheld by the Supreme Court.
Now, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is warning that TikTok will go dark in America, unless China agrees to a deal that giving an American business ownership of the popular social media app and its algorithm. Lutnick told CNBC: “So, if it’s in American control, China can have a little piece, or ByteDance, the current owner, can keep a little piece. But basically Americans will have control.”
The question remains as to whether President Trump agrees having already delayed the sale three times. Some believe President Trump is dragging his feet because he doesn’t want TikTok to go dark and risk alienating millions of young voters, and soon to be voters. That would make sense.
But it is also possible that Trump’s hesitation has more to do with the fact that one of the largest owners of ByteDance is the secretive investment firm Susquehanna Capital, cofounded by billionaire Republican donor Jeff Yass. Of course, Yass doesn’t want to sell TikTok.
According to a report in Forbes, much of Yass’s wealth is tied up in TikTok: “Susquehanna’s most valuable holding is ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company. Susquehanna holds a 15% stake in ByteDance, a source ‘familiar with the investment,’ told the New York Times. And Yass himself owns 7%.”
Forbes also noted that “Yass started funneling money into the 2024 election early; at one point in March he was the biggest donor to outside spending groups. He, alongside wife Janine Yass, were No. 6 in top contributors to the election, contributing in total more than $96 million to Republican causes…”
While none of this proves President Trump has delayed the sale of TikTok to benefit Yass, being a strong financial supporter of Republicans seems to buy a lot in Washington these days. The Federal Communications Commission just approved a sale between Paramount and Skydance Media, after CBS (Paramount is CBS’s parent company) cancelled constant Trump critic Stephen Colbert’s show and settled a lawsuit with President Trump over a 60 Minutes interview of then Vice President Kamala Harris, paying Trump personally $16 million dollars.
No stranger to controversy, Susquehanna Capital will be in a Pennsylvania court on July 28th, having been sued by two former contactors who played a role in Susquehanna’s investment in the technology that was later used to create ByteDance. They allege Susquehanna fraudulently hid that fact and failed to compensate them. This lawsuit made national news when documents about ByteDance’s origins were mistakenly made public.
At the end of the day, ByteDance likely will be sold to an America buyer. But the longer Donald Trump ignores federal law requiring that TikTok be shutdown, a major Republican donor will continue profiting from his ownership of the popular social media app. Maybe that means nothing, or maybe it shows that under the Trump administration, the rule of law is for sale.