The White House is weighing another reprieve. Every day the app continues operating is a threat.
Sept. 17 is the deadline for TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app to a buyer in the United States or face a ban. It is also Constitution Day. That these dates overlap is as much a coincidence as a crossroads. While the Constitution plays an indispensable role in weaving together e pluribus unum — “out of many, one”— it now faces the possible threat of a Chinese Communist Party deliberately weaponizing TikTok to tear that unity apart.
Enforcing the law on TikTok is critical to heading off a military confrontation and, if necessary, winning one. As Henry Kissinger wrote, “Deterrence requires a combination of power, the will to use it and the assessment of these by the potential aggressor.” Our political conversations tend to focus on our capability to project power while too often sidestepping the question of our will to do so.
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Enter: TikTok.
Imagine the following scenario. China decides to attack Taiwan, and, fearing the United States will come to Taiwan’s aid, launches preemptive strikes against American targets overseas. In the United States, Chinese operators launch drone attacks from secret bases located on more than 380,000 acres of farmland China has purchased. As the government considers its options, the 170 million American TikTok users open their feeds to thousands of bots disguised as people, rattling off anti-American propaganda; encouraging young students desperate for meaning to fight their own government; and spreading disinformation at such a rapid rate that it is impossible to discern fact from fiction.
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These concerns are why Congress passed legislation giving ByteDance a deadline to either sell TikTok to an American company or shut down the app’s U.S. operations. The legislation, whose constitutionality was confirmed by a 9-0 vote in the Supreme Court, allowed for a single 90-day extension to secure a deal. Not only has President Donald Trump extended this three times while trying to broker a deal to save TikTok, but Attorney General Pam Bondi has also shielded tech companies from legal liability as they continue to service TikTok in defiance of the law.
Unfortunately, these policies, as well as the White House’s decision to open an official TikTok account, trade national security for political expediency. They provide tacit approval for American participation in a system that has the potential to undermine the very things the Trump administration has argued we should be promoting: national pride; strong, resilient families; and American security.
