Another deadline comes and goes and another extension given. This seems to be a running theme with this TikTok ban story.
Trump is totally set on banning TikTok… maybe… possibly… eventually. Ever since his failed Tulsa rally, the Commander and Chief, Donald “at the golf course” Trump has been trying to exact revenge against TikTok after teenagers allegedly bought up tickets and intentionally never showed up at his rally. While it was seemingly 50/50 whether he would actually carry through with this unconstitutional effort, the US election seemed to suddenly change everything.
After 5 days of uncertainty, Trump was declared the loser, paving the way for President elect, Joe Biden, to take the helm on January 20th. Trump, of course, isn’t a huge fan of this reality and has spent his time since doing what he does best: continuing to be a total loser in the courts by racking up over 26 losses so far.
In the process, it seems Trump has completely forgotten all about the whole TikTok affair. As a judge was about ready to rule that an extension to the deadline wasn’t warranted, the administration fell into radio silence. They blew past the deadline with TikTok being left to ask for an extension due to a lack of response. The administration did eventually respond by saying that the new deadline is November 27th. Of course, that is today, so what is happening?
Well, we are beginning to see a broken record for this story. According to reports we are seeing, the deadline is being extended yet again. From Variety:
President Trump previously ordered Beijing-based ByteDance to sell TikTok to American buyers by Nov. 12, alleging that the short-form video app represents a national security threat from the Chinese government. That was extended to Nov. 27 and, with the Thanksgiving holiday, pushed for another week to Dec. 4.
If the Trump administration rejects the proposed deal involving TikTok, the app could be effectively banned by the U.S. At the same time, however, ByteDance and TikTok are pursuing litigation seeking to halt such a ban.
“The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has granted ByteDance a one-week extension, from November 27, 2020 to December 4, 2020 to allow time to review a revised submission that the Committee recently received,” a Treasury Department spokesperson said Wednesday. CFIUS is an interagency group led by the Treasury Department that has the authority to block foreign transactions involving U.S. entities.
So, it looks like Trump will have to squeeze time out of his schedule currently packed with trips to the golf course, losing court cases, and cursing at his own golf course to finally make a decision on the matter. It’s hard to say if he will finally make the time or if he’ll blow through yet another deadline again. At the rate things are going, we may very well see indecision all the way up to inauguration day. As it stands now, this TikTok ban thing doesn’t seem to be very high on the priority list now.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
