On the day of his inauguration, Donald Trump signed an executive order to reprieve the popular social media platform, TikTok, of its federal ban. The app went dark for about 14 hours starting on Saturday, Jan. 18, which sparked numerous outcries from users and influencers. However, with the newly signed executive order, the app’s ban has been delayed for 75 days.
While the decision had users excited, we should note that Trump has contradicted himself.
During his first term, Trump started the effort to ban TikTok, because he believed it posed a threat to U.S. national security. What is even more ironic is the fact that he joined the platform shortly after he left office, and he currently has over 15 million followers.
Now, he is the one credited with reviving it and bringing relief to millions of users. TikTok even gave him a shout-out in a pop-up message once the platform was restored, stating, “Thank you for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”
Trump playing both sides of a legislative issue as a former and current president is deceitful and not what U.S. citizens deserve in a leader. His conflicting behavior benefits only him in order to appear as a savior.
This happened in another instance with the bipartisan border security bill in May of 2024. During Joe Biden’s presidency, Democrats proposed an immigration bill worth $118 billion that would have funded 1,500 personnel at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It would have become the most aggressive border security bill with its goal of reducing the number of migrants crossing the border.
However, the bill failed to pass through the Senate as nearly every Republican voted to filibuster it. Trump convinced the Senate Republicans to vote against the bill because he did not want to give a political victory to the Democrats on one of his key campaign issues.
He then announced a new border plan to monitor undocumented immigrants at one of his campaign rallies in October. He claimed that he would hire 10,000 new U.S. agents and provide them a 10% salary raise as well as a $10,000 retention and signing bonus. He is also continuing his previous plan of building a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
What was a perfectly effective border security bill became a futile proposal. Trump prevented an important bipartisan agreement just to paint himself in a favorable light even though his proposition is less impactful.
One of the spokespeople for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, Matt Corridoni, stated, “Trump doesn’t care about solving problems, he only wants to run on one.”
Our current president exploits important issues that have substantial influence in our country. He did it with the TikTok ban, he did it with immigration, and he will continue to create problems in order to sell the solution.
This story was written by Rachel Lopera. She can be reached at r[email protected]
