On Sunday, the 170 million Americans who use TikTok saw the same message when they opened the app.
“As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S."
Now, TikTok is operational in the U.S. following a short shutdown that began Saturday evening. The closure came after Congress passed a law last year requiring TikTok to be sold to an American buyer by January 19 or be banned from US app stores. The Supreme Court even ruled in favor of the law, citing threats to national security.
Trump has claimed he wants to “save” TikTok and that the decision on its ban is “ultimately” up to him, despite the fact that the law is already in existence.
“It ultimately goes up to me, so you’re going to see what I’m going to do,” Trump told CNN. “Congress has given me the decision, so I’ll be making the decision.”
Can Trump actually save TikTok?
It’s unclear.
However, Stephen Carter, a Yale University law professor and Bloomberg opinion columnist, published an op-ed Tuesday explaining Trump could save TikTok using “prosecutorial discretion” to negate the consequences for violating a law.
“True, as a legal matter, a president can’t simply suspend the operation of a duly enacted law,” Carter wrote. “As a practical matter, however, Trump will stand in a long line of chief executives who have used prosecutorial discretion to achieve the same end.”
Prosecutorial discretion is the president’s ability to not enforce a law by instructing his justice department to not prosecute those who violated it. Carter describes it as “the all-but-unreviewable freedom of the Oval Office’s occupant to decide which laws to enforce, when, and how.”
The Supreme Court has even said that the decision of whether or not to enforce a law through prosecution is “a decision which has long been regarded as the special province of the Executive Branch,” Carter noted.
The current law banning TikTok would impose a $5,000 fine on companies — such as Apple or Google — for each user accessing TikTok through their services. If Trump exercises prosecutorial discretion, Carter explained, he can direct his administration to not levy the fines and essentially not enforce the law.
Trump already issued an executive order noting that companies will not be penalized for keeping the app online for the next 75 days.
It’s also unclear to what extent Trump will use prosecutorial discretion. He also said he wants TikTok to be 50 percent U.S.-owned, despite its parent company ByteDance giving no indication they plan to sell.
"I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to say up."
Trump even said on Sunday he changed his mind on TikTok (after initially wanting to ban it in his first term) because he used it in his campaign.
“As of today, TikTok is back,” Trump told his supporters at a pre-inauguration victory rally. “So, you know, I did a little TikTok thing. We have a guy...he’s a young kid, like 21 years old, and we hired this guy, and I went on Tiktok. Can you believe what I’ll do to win an election?”
“So I like Tiktok,” he added.
But not everyone is happy with Trump’s decision — including some of his Republican allies.
Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Pete Ricketts said Sunday there is no legal basis for an extension on TikTok’s operation in the U.S.
"Now that the law has taken effect, there’s no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’ of its effective date," the senators said. "For TikTok to come back online in the future, ByteDance must agree to a sale that satisfies the law’s qualified-divestiture requirements by severing all ties between TikTok and Communist China."
