Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“The first thing to say about the sale of TikTok to a still-undefined U.S. consortium is that everything about this episode has been rampantly illegal. The U.S. passed a law requiring the divestiture of TikTok from its Chinese parent company. There was a date certain for the divestiture—January 19—and one prescribed escape valve to extend the deadline a single time. Donald Trump did not use that prescribed provision, and instead unilaterally extended the deadline five times, including another 120-day delay established on September 25, essentially by saying his Justice Department would not enforce the law passed by Congress. This isn’t a case of prosecutorial discretion, where you have some colorable justification to not prosecute someone violating the law. In this case, the law was just about Chinese-controlled social media platforms.” (09/29/25)
https://prospect.org/power/2025-09-29-why-do-we-assume-trumptok-will-succeed/