'There's money involved': Ex-Trump aide suspicious of his TikTok flip-flop
Former White House communications director for Donald Trump, Alysssa Farah Griffin, called out her ex-boss' desperate effort to trash the ban of TikTok while also taking credit for it at the same time. All the while, Trump tells his flock that he was the hardest on China.
"I agree with Nancy Pelosi on this," the Republican told her co-hosts on "The View" Thursday.
They were shocked. But as she explained, the bill has been the most bipartisan in this Congress, with a vote of 352 to 65.
"When 352 lawmakers left and right come together and say this is a bill that needs to be passed, Americans should listen," said Griffin. "We don't see a lot of bipartisanship. TikTok has been described as digital fentanyl. So basically, the Chinese Communist Party is invested in Byte-Dance, which is a platform behind TikTok. There are major privacy concerns. There are national security concerns, and then there's this, you know, disinformation propaganda and mental health concerns."
She went on to note that in China itself, TikTok is a completely different platform because they regulate it more heavily. In the U.S. those regulations don't exist.
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"This is not going to make TikTok go away. It's going to say an American entity needs to buy it, so there are restrictions and safety rails in place," Griffin explained. "China could refuse to sell, but you're talking about a multibillion-dollar company."
Trump's comments this week in an interview with CNBC left many observers confused about where he stood on the matter.
“I do believe it," Trump said when asked about whether the platform is a national security threat. "And we have to very much admit we are protecting American people’s privacy and data rights. But as you know, I was at the point where I could have gotten it done if I wanted to. I should have said, you guys decide, you make that decision, because there are a lot of people who talk that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it. There are a lot of users.”
Trump then explained that despite believing it is a national security threat, he still wants it to exist in its current form because he hates Facebook.
“There’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok. But the thing I don’t like is that without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people along with a lot of the media," Trump said.
Griffin appeared baffled by Trump's stance and she said he had the chance to make a move, but "for some reason he didn't. But then he kept saying I'm tough on China. We need to break up TikTok. Then he reversed on it. There's money involved. There's also, I believe, he's not actually tough on China and some of the folks against this bill, the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Nancy Mace, I'm sorry, it's the crazy caucus who don't understand foreign adversary threats and every day playing into it."
Watch the video below or at this link.