Incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz told CNN on Sunday that President-elect Donald Trump would not rule out continued Chinese ownership of TikTok if steps were taken to ensure American users’ data is protected and stored in the US.
TikTok stopped working for 170 of its US users on Sunday after a law took effect banning the continued operation of the app due to concerns that Americans’ data could be misused by Chinese authorities. .
Waltz, a member of Congress whose appointment as security adviser will be subject to Senate confirmation, told CNN that the president-elect is working to “save TikTok” with a “firewall to ensure data is protected.” Together they do not rule out continued Chinese ownership. Preserved here on American soil.”
Trump has said he is “likely” to give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban after taking office on Monday. TikTok cited the promise in a notice posted to users on the app.
Waltz also spoke to CBS News on Sunday and said Trump needed time to resolve issues related to TikTok, while adding that an extension was needed for TikTok to evaluate proposed buyers.
However, Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson sent contradictory signals, saying he believed Trump would push TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to sell the app.
“The way we read it is that he’s going to try to push for actual divestiture, a change of hands, a change of ownership,” Johnson said. “This is not the platform that members of Congress were concerned about. This is the Chinese Communist Party”
Some of Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress have opposed the idea of TikTok’s expansion.
Republican US senators Tom Cotton, who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Pete Ricketts said in a joint statement on Sunday that “there is no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’ of its (ban’s) effective date.” Is.”
