In the early days of his presidency, Donald J. Trump enacted dozens of executive orders, many of which are now facing legal challenges on the grounds that they are flagrant violations of U.S. laws and the Constitution. This includes one of his most positive actions – delaying the TikTok ban.
To be clear, TikTok should never have been banned. That law threatens to strip millions of Americans of their treasured entertainment and in many cases, their livelihoods. The law demanding that ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, sell the app to an American company highlights the blatant xenophobia that lawmakers’ opposition to TikTok is based on. It doesn’t matter that social media platforms are collecting user data; it only matters that the Chinese government has hypothetical access to that data.
The argument of those behind the TikTok ban is that China having access to the personal information of average Americans is somehow a threat to our national security, and eliminating that threat is worth sacrificing American jobs. I think that banning the app on government computers is justified, as many countries have done, but what kind of information does Congress think average Americans have on their phones that is detrimental to our national security?
This bipartisan law is a clear consequence of the advancing age of America’s representatives. Lawmakers are out of touch with technology and with younger generations and they clearly have no desire to court the votes of Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Yet Donald Trump does.
It’s important to note that this pro-TikTok stance is relatively new. During his first administration, Trump supported a TikTok ban. His new willingness to support ByteDance certainly seems like a political tactic to gain the support of new voters.
So while repealing the law would be the best course of action, an executive order giving ByteDance more time and working with them to find a solution is the best Trump can do, right? Actually, it’s more than he can do. As anyone who’s taken Politics, Econ and Gov. here at Upper Arlington High School would know, laws passed by Congress trump executive orders. A president can’t just change the law; that’s called separation of powers. That’s not what this executive order did. The law is still the same; TikTok is still banned. That’s why Apple and Google’s App stores wouldn’t let users download TikTok for weeks, even after the executive order. This meant new users and anyone who deleted the app couldn’t access it despite the order. Technically, it is still illegal and they could still face massive fines, and these corporations didn’t want to risk it. But this executive order instructs the agencies responsible for fining companies in violation of that ban to simply not do that. Trump even went so far as to send letters to companies in violation of U.S. law to assure them they would not be punished. Trump has unilaterally decided not to enforce a law passed by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court.
The fact that ByteDance cares less about the law and more about who’s in charge of enforcing it is evident by the fact that TikTok was reinstated in the U.S. before this executive order was passed. That only took Trump’s reassurance that he would not be holding U.S. companies to the ban. This refusal to enforce the law clearly violates the Constitution and contradicts the oath of office Trump recited that very day. He swore to preserve, protect and defend a document that clearly states that Congress is responsible for passing laws – and then he turned around and refused to enforce those laws.
Trump circumvented his constitutional duty to uphold laws passed by Congress, ignoring his oath to protect and uphold the Constitution. Who cares? He’s sticking it to those insufferable old politicians in Congress, and saving American’s precious app. What does it matter how he does it, as long as he gets it done? The problem here is that this is an incredibly dangerous precedent to set and a clear example of this president’s willingness to ignore the Constitution and the law to get what he wants. You can’t look the other way just because it’s something you agree with, because next time it might not be. He’s already moved on to abolish birthright citizenship in violation of the 14th Amendment and Supreme Court precedent, and to freeze federal funding, which clearly infringes on Congress’ “power of the purse.” What’s next?
Separation of powers exists for a very good reason, it is what holds this country together. When Congress passes a law, the president enforces it. Whether they agree with it or not. Such fundamental components of America’s democracy must be upheld whether they suit you or not. Through this executive order, Trump has demonstrated that he has no regard for the Constitution when it doesn’t suit him. We shouldn’t expect him to behave any differently when the Constitution is on our side. I believe that TikTok should absolutely be legal, but some things are far more important. If we don’t hold the president to his oaths and duties now, it’s going to be much harder to do so later on down the line.
