The former president voiced opposition to a possible ban. Republicans went ahead, anyway.
Here’s a rarity for House Republicans — they just bucked Donald Trump.
Weeks after walking away from a bipartisan border deal at the former president’s behest, House Republican leaders on Wednesday rammed through a bill that could eventually ban TikTok over Trump’s objections.
Republicans who rejected Trump’s warnings on Wednesday included some of his staunchest supporters. Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) were among the 197 Republicans who voted in favor of the bill — which easily cleared the two-thirds vote threshold it needed to pass the lower chamber.
So, too, did Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who was on Fox News minutes before the vote waffling over whether to support it. And he wasn’t the only Republican openly disregarding Trump’s guidance.
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Trump had warned Republicans against approving the bill that would force Beijing-based ByteDance to divest TikTok within six months or face a ban on the app in the U.S. While Trump believes TikTok is a national security threat, he also said barring it would empower Facebook, which he considers “an enemy of the people.”
The stance marked a reversal for Trump, who had issued an executive order when he was president attempting to ban TikTok. And it came as the prominent Club for Growth and a former senior Trump senior adviser, Kellyanne Conway, were on Capitol Hill advocating for the app.
But unlike with the border bill — which Trump actively pushed Republicans to walk away from to deny rival President Joe Biden an election-year win — the former president did not directly pressure lawmakers to vote against the TikTok legislation, a person close to Trump and granted anonymity to speak freely said. Trump’s campaign declined comment.
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House Republicans break from Trump on TikTok https://t.co/1v586afHZV
— POLITICO (@politico) March 13, 2024
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