Professor: Trump not interested in security

Dr. Brian L Ott says Trump’s push against TikTok isn’t about national security but eliminating a major competitor. #Trump #TikTok

Transcript

00:00It's interesting because he wasn't keen on TikTok and then he kind of changed his mind

00:05about it, didn't he, when he saw how much he was getting the younger voter involved

00:11in TikTok.

00:12So lots of people have been talking about that, but you mentioned national security

00:16there.

00:17TikTok is facing a ban due to national security concerns over the platform's links to China.

00:25What risks do users face, and is Trump actually concerned about national security in this

00:31sense?

00:32I actually don't think President Trump is concerned about national security.

00:35You can't have it both ways.

00:37You can't say, on the one hand, that this platform is a danger or a risk to national

00:42security and then have a 75-day period where you extend an opportunity for someone else

00:48to come in as a buyer.

00:50And yesterday, just yesterday, President Trump suggested that if he's not able to

00:55close this deal, he'll just extend the deadline again.

00:58We can't suggest, on the one hand, that it's a national security threat.

01:01On the other hand, suggest that there's no deadline by which this has to be met.

01:07So my sense of what's really going on here is that this is a tremendously successful

01:15social media company that represented competition for U.S.-based social media companies, and

01:21this is really an attempt to eliminate competition for them.