President-elect Donald Trump has been pressuring the Supreme Court to strike down a law passed last year that will force video social media site TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell off the platform or face an effective ban. With the Supreme Court appearing unwilling to do so at oral argument this month, Trump is now vowing to sign an executive order canceling that law.
But he doesn't have that power, tech reporter Kara Swisher told CNN on Wednesday afternoon.
"The Washington Post is reporting ... that President-elect Trump is considering an executive order to 'save TikTok,'" said anchor Jake Tapper. "How would that — I mean, would that even work?"
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"No," said Swisher. "The Post correctly said ... that an executive order like this is just a press release on nicer stationery. No, he can't do that. This is a law. He's got to have the law overturned. He doesn't have to enforce the law when he — he's not president when it gets banned. So he has another day before that. So he could not enforce it. And I know [Trump attorney general nominee] Pam Bondi wouldn't say whether or not she would. But ... it's a Supreme Court law. It's a law of Congress. They have to decide whether to follow Congress or to follow the president. And so they'll probably follow what the Supreme Court says over Trump here, because they've got to pass a law or figure out some solution, a sale to someone or something like Project Texas."
What's worth noting, Swisher added, is that Trump himself was one of the first people calling for TikTok to be forced to divest or face a ban — and only did an about-face later, some speculate because one of his political megadonors, Jeff Yass, holds a large stake in the business.
"What's ironic here is Trump is the one that started this off the ban," said Swisher. "He was for the ban before he was against it, essentially."
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