Tik Tok was banned. Momentarily, the ban came from the Biden administration’s suspicion of the app and the data that it was sending back to China about US markets and secrets. The ban was set into motion for a brief period on the 19th and then Trump signed an executive order on the 20th to suspend the ban for 75 more days to find either a new buyer or to find something to do with the app. 

But what did the ban really do? All the ban did was remove it from the app stores on phones and stopped new updates to the app effectively rendering it useless after a certain amount of time. However Trump capitalized on panic from consumers and walked back Biden’s ban. This turned the seemingly non-partisan issue into a politicized topic and left many confused as the president has in the past wanted it banned, turning many republicans away from Trump.

While google and Apple have yet to allow the app back onto their stores many believe that the reason Trump did this was the follower base that he has. As the president one of your main powers is the “bully pulpit” or in other words your platform to persuade. And Trump uses this more than any other president and his 170 million followers on Tik Tok most likely influenced him in postponing the ban as many see his election success as a result of the extensive podcast appearances and appearances on more than just nightly news headlines which relatively few people in America watch anyways when compared to other forms of media. This has all culminated in Trump reversing his earlier hatred toward the Chinese company as the winds of fortune blow his way.