'A possible problem': Trump's favorite law professor shoots a hole in his TikTok proposal

Jonathan Turley, a law professor and Fox News contributor who regularly champions all things Donald Trump wasn't so sure about the president-elect's call for businesses to trust "that there will be no liability" if they thwart the TikTok ban.

Shortly after TikTok pulled the plug on its U.S. operations because it hadn't found a buyer to replace its Chinese-run parent company, Trump asked U.S. providers to defy the ban.

Trump posted to TruthSocial Sunday, "I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark! I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security. The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order."

Turley gave his legal take in a series of posts on X:

"President Trump's statements indicate that he may issue a 90-day extension for TikTok after he is sworn in on January 20th. However, there is a possible problem with such a plan given the language of the Act...

"...The Act refers to a 270-day period from the date of enactment for a foreign adversary controlled application. If period ends on Jan. 19th, it is not clear that the 90-day extension is an option...

"...Moreover, even with a 90-day period, that is not a lot of runway for a corporate sale or a legislative fix. Any way this goes, the status of the company will exist in a weird Zombie statutory state of being among the living dead."

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Trump ally House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared on NBC's Meet The Press Sunday where he declared, "We will enforce the law" on the ban passed by Congress in the interest of national security. Two MAGA senators also broke from Trump on the issue, Tom Cotton (R-AK) and Pete Ricketts (R-NE). In a statement, they praised U.S. companies that played by the rules.

“We commend Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft for following the law and halting operations with ByteDance and TikTok, and we encourage other companies to do the same. The law, after all, risks ruinous bankruptcy for any company who violates it," they wrote.

Trump has not responded so far to the legal concerns over his "no liability" promise.

Meanwhile, TikTok was back up in the U.S. Sunday, with the company posting a "thank you" to the president-elect:

"In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive. It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States."