Let’s Not Mince Words Regarding Trump’s Executive Order to Pause Enforcement of the TikTok Law and Provide Supposed Immunity to Companies That Are in Clear Violation of It

Tuesday, 21 January 2025

Bobby Allyn, reporting for NPR, under the dreadfully incorrect headline “Trump Signs Executive Order to Pause TikTok Ban, Provide Immunity to Tech Firms”:

According to the order, the law will be paused for 75 days and companies that work with TikTok will not be liable for doing so.

I take profound issue with this framing. The order does not pause the law, because executive orders can’t “pause” laws. The order pauses enforcement of the law. The order itself even says so. Quoting from the order:

Accordingly, I am instructing the Attorney General not to take any action to enforce the Act for a period of 75 days from today to allow my Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform used by millions of Americans.

Imagine a city council that passes a law banning all motor vehicle traffic on one of the town’s main streets. The law is very unpopular with many people who previously drove on that street. The law went into effect the day before a newly elected mayor takes office. The mayor gets sworn in and he just tells the police chief — who is a political appointee of the mayor — not to enforce the law for 75 days. That’s what Trump has done. He’s just telling the police (the Justice Department) not to enforce the law. Popular demand has no legal bearing.

This is very much in-character for Donald Trump. This isn’t a rug-pull or about-face on Trump’s part. Give him credit: this is exactly how he said he’d act (or, perhaps, to choose a more provocative verb, rule) if re-elected. But let’s not mince words or pretend for a moment this is even vaguely normal. The name of the town in my allegory above is Banana Republicville. The order doesn’t change the law; it says to ignore the law.

And remember: it’s not like PAFACA was a partisan Democratic bill or a Biden initiative. PAFACA had broad bipartisan support: it passed in the House of Representatives 360-58, and was agreed to by the Senate 79-18. The two main proponents of the bill in the Senate are Republicans Tom Cotton and Pete Ricketts. Cotton is the chairman of the powerful Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Are they just going to sit back and accept this? Maybe! But maybe not. It’s going to be a very telling test of Republicans in both houses of Congress. There’s no ambiguity here: Trump is asserting a de facto after-the-fact veto power over a law that was already passed, in direct contravention of the plain language of Article II Section 3 of the Constitution.

Back to Allyn at NPR:

“Essentially with TikTok I have the right to sell it or close it,” Trump said from the Oval Office after signing the executive action on Monday. “We may have to get approval from China. I’m not sure. I’m sure they’ll approve.”

Let’s not mince words on this either: this man is a proud ignoramus. He relishes his ignorance.