Trump’s Bid to Force TikTok Sale Follows Well-Trod Legal Path
- White House order would be almost impossible to overturn
- Security officials have unwound other Chinese deals over data
This article is for subscribers only.
President Donald Trump’s push for the sale of TikTok to a U.S. company marks a major escalation in his battle to keep data on American citizens out of Chinese hands and a move that, if successful, would be nearly impossible to overturn under U.S. law.
Trump’s demand has set off a geopolitical tug-of-war, but it has ample precedent. The administration has required at least three previous Chinese investments in U.S. companies to be unwound on national security grounds after they closed. Each involved data security.