Trump Gives TikTok an Extension in the US

Trump as signed the order to delay TikTok's divestment

Now that Donald Trump is the 47th President of the United States, what is he going to do?

He signed a flurry of executive orders, one of which was delaying the order that TikTok either divest or shut down. The delay gives the company 75 days to figure out a way to address the app's privacy concerns.

The day before on Sunday, TikTok did "go dark", but went back online a day later, much to the relief of American users and influencers who depend on the app either for making money or watching mindless videos.

Trump suggests TikTok be sold to the US

In the meantime Trump is making some strange statements about TikTok.

"I may not do the deal. I may do the deal. TikTok is worthless, worthless. If I don't approve it, it has to close. I learned that from the people that own it," Trump said Monday.

"With TikTok, I have the right to either sell it or close it, and we'll make that determination... We may have to get an approval from China too, I'm not sure, but I'm sure they'll approve it," he added.

TikTok is owned by ByteDance, and it has said that the app is not for sale, and the Chinese government has also stated it is not for sale either.

Trump later suggested the US could by a 50 percent share of TikTok.

Which part of "not for sale" does he not understand?

Chew seated next to National Security Director

Then he pulled out the "T" word -- tariffs, saying in part: "if we wanted to make a deal with TikTok, and it was a good deal, and China wouldn't approve it, then I think ultimately they'd approve it because we'd put tariffs on China."

"Maybe, I'm not saying I would, but you certainly could do that. And if we said, well, 'you're not going to approve it', then that's a certain hostility, and we'll put tariffs of 25, 30, 40, 50 percent, even 100 percent."

The strongman threatening tariffs, which is curious considering when he was President in 2020, he raised the idea of banning TikTok if ByteDance didn't sell it and issued an executive order to that effect; it was later thrown out by a federal district court.

But Trump has had a change of heart. Why? Because one of his big Republican donors, billionaire Jeff Yass, is a leading investor in ByteDance. 

Is that how TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew got a seat at the inauguration -- right next to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard?

This is what the next four years will be -- full of contradictions and big talk. Everything's up for a deal.