Speaker Johnson and 2 GOP senators break with Trump on TikTok extension
Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday dispelled the notion that President-elect Donald Trump would bring TikTok back early in his second term without the company’s willingness to sell to a U.S.-based owner.
“I think we will enforce the law,” Johnson told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday, a day after Trump told NBC News that he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day extension to operate in the U.S.
Johnson’s remarks come just hours after TikTok halted operations in the U.S., cutting user access to the app. At the same time, Apple, Google and Microsoft removed the app from app stores, preventing new users from downloading it.
Shortly before Johnson’s comments, Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., broke with Trump, too, celebrating the app’s ban that went into effect Sunday.
“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,” Cotton and Ricketts wrote in a statement.
