No question Donald Trump won the first presidential debate, even if being present was all it took. But The Donald missed an opportunity he shouldn’t pass up on the next one — the opportunity to brand Joe Biden, or whoever his opponent may be, as the candidate who will ban TikTok. Once he ties that millstone around his challenger, the presidency is his.
Polls show young people hate the TikTok ban. Pew Research found that 46% oppose it, with only 29 percent in favor. It so happens these same young people are a critical voting block for Joe Biden. What a way to draw a distinction, and tap into a greater audience, by being the candidate who will defend one of their primary entertainment hubs, online communities, and in some cases, even their workplace.
The TikTok ban will go down as one of the most deeply unpopular bills to ever pass Congress. Biden made the unconscionable decision to sign a law removing a product from the shelves for 170 million U.S. customers — while taking away income from content creators. The only time a product so widely beloved has ever been banned in America was during prohibition!
As evidenced by Oracle’s recent warning to shareholders to brace for losses due to the ban, Biden’s signature will hurt businesses large and small; while just plainly ticking people off. The only reason there is not more outrage currently is because many assume the Supreme Court will right this wrong on free speech grounds. Should TikTok get banned, or be forced to transfer its platform over to remedial ownership with remedial service, the backlash will be immense.
Donald Trump is politically wise to stay as far away from that dumpster fire as he can. He recently told Charlie Kirk, founder of the young conservative group Turning Point USA, “I will never ban TikTok,” and again reiterated his support this week. Trump should continue to get this message out to a wider audience of young people.
Indeed, there is evidence he is trying — and succeeding. Trump is now up to 5 million followers on the platform compared to Joe Biden’s roughly 360,000. The NY Times recently found that Trump has twice the amount of supportive TikTok posts as Biden. Liberal activist Robert Reich was even forced to send a panicked email to MoveOn.org members begging them to put out more content on the platform to catch up.
TikTok is Donald’s Trump card to win with young voters. Making the case that it shouldn’t be banned doesn’t make you many friends in the swamp, but it’s an easy case to make to voters.
Calli Schroeder of the Electronic Privacy Information Center points out that the ban “is a form of security theater” because “You could get rid of TikTok today, and China would not lose any significant [amount] of personal information on Americans.” This should come as no surprise given that potentially over half of all apps are collecting and sharing user data. And data brokers are selling that data — even to people in other countries.
Politicians don’t have enough common sense to get this, but voters do.
Trump should promise young Americans every chance he gets that he will end the ban. Voters will reward him for it.
Being the TikTok president is much cooler than being the Truth Social one.
