US President Donald Trump has said TikTok will be “very strongly protected” as the made-in-China social network has “a warm spot in my heart”.
Speaking on NBC’s flagship Sunday morning political program Meet The Press, Trump was asked if he would extend the deadline for TikTok’s developer, ByteDance, to divest the app’s US operations to a local owner, as required under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act that passed last year with support from Republican lawmakers who agreed with its thrust that TikTok endangers US citizens as their data can be accessed in China.
That law set a deadline of January 25th, 2025, for a divestment. The deadline passed without a sale and Trump chose not to enforce the law for a time on grounds that doing so would preclude a deal being done and deprive American TikTok users of a service they value.
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On Sunday Trump suggested he also doesn’t want to deprive himself of TikTok.
“I have a little sweet spot in my heart because, as you know, I won young people by 36 points,” Trump said, referring to the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. “No Republican ever won young people, and I won it by 36 points, and I focused on TikTok. So perhaps I shouldn’t say this, but I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” he added.
He went on to say that TikTok is “very interesting, but it’ll be protected. It’ll be very strongly protected. But if it needs an extension, I would be willing to give it an extension, might not need it.”
That’s because Trump said a deal to offload TikTok is close and may happen before the June 19 deadline.
“We actually have a deal,” he said. “We have a group of purchasers, very substantial people. They’re going to pay a lot of money. It’s a good thing for us.”
The President said the deal is also good for China.
“But because of the fact that I’ve essentially cut off China right now with the tariffs that are so high that they’re not going to be able to do much business with the United States. But if we make a deal with China I’m sure that’ll be a subject, and it’ll be a very easy subject to solve.”
DOGE ‘unbelievable at computers’
Other areas of tech policy touched on during the interview included the until-recently-Elon-Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which interviewer Kristen Welker pointed out fired and then re-hired aviation regulators and nuclear weapon safety experts before asking if DOGE “jeopardized the safety and security of Americans?”
Trump responded that DOGE $160 billion worth of fraud, waste and abuse – a figure that is disputed and said Musk did “an amazing job.”
“I think his people have done an incredible job. They’re brilliant people. They know the computer. I actually asked him, ‘What’s their big trait?’ He said: ‘They’re unbelievable at computers.’ In other words, you can’t fake them out.”
The President also said DOGE is “not finished yet” and that it remains possible to find $2 trillion in savings on government expenditure.
Trump also praised his trade policy, which he said is directly responsible for “Apple building $500 billion worth of plants.”
“They always built their plants in China. Now they’re building their plants over here,” he said. Apple has indeed made a $500 billion dollar investment in the US, but the manufacturing portion of that investment will be outsourced. Last week Apple CEO Tim Cook also said most Apple products sold in the USA will be made in India and Vietnam
Trump also praised “the biggest chip company in the world. You know, the chip company from Taiwan” for committing $500 billion to make in America. That’s a possible reference to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry operator, which in March announced a plan to invest an additional $100 billion in the US, or perhaps to Nvidia’s planned sales of $500 billion worth of servers made in America. Again, that work may be outsourced – possibly to Taiwanese firms Foxconn and Wistron.
Moving and movie tariffs
Trump was also asked about tariffs on imports, and said he intends they will likely be permanent to ensure manufacturers understand they must build facilities in the USA. He denied his policies, which have seen tariffs imposed, paused, and raised within days – followed by strong hints of future reductions, is not creating uncertainty.
But later in the day he announced an entirely new tariff – on foreign films.
“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” he wrote on Truth Social. “Therefore, I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.”
At the time of writing, the White House, Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative had not issued a statement about the tariff and how it will be calculated. ®
