Trump Stumbles Through Word Salad On Banning Or Not Banning TikTok In CNBC Hit

Former President Donald Trump stumbled and rambled his way through a meandering answer when CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin asked him about banning TikTok.

Trump recently came out against banning TikTok in a rant that included an attack on Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg some saw as anti-Semitic. That’s a reversal from his position when he was president.

On Monday’s edition of CNBC’s Squawk Box, Sorkin confronted Trump over that flip, and the answer was a journey:

ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: Mr. President, while talking about China, I want to ask you about perhaps one of the biggest business stories and policy stories of the moment, and that is TikTok. You have called TikTok a national security threat. At one point you said that their, quote, “Data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans personal and proprietary information.”.

And yet, it appears that you’ve now reversed your view on banning TikTok. Why is that?

DONALD TRUMP: So– I had it done. And then Congress said, well, they never, they they ultimately, usually fail, (laughs) you know, they are a gooch– like, extremely political and they’re extremely subject to people called lobbyists who happen to be very, very talented, very good and very rich.

I could have banned TikTok. I had it banned just about, I could have got that done. But I said, you know what? But I’ll leave it up to you. I didn’t push them too hard because, you know, let them do their own research and development, and they decided not to do it.

But as you know, I was at the point where I could have got that done if I wanted to. I sort of said, you guys decide you make that decision because it’s a tough decision to make.

Frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who who will go crazy without it. There are a lot of, users. There’s, you know, a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok.

But the thing I don’t like is that without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger. And I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media.

What Facebah-book did with lock boxes, with a $500 million, Zuckerberg’s, lock boxes that he put in. I mean, I considered illegal. But, you know, so they, you know, they put people in jail when they spend, they put people in jail when they spent more than $5,600 in a campaign.

They go to jail if they’re $200. Look at Dinesh D’Souza, and they put him in jail over a couple of hundred bucks, and yet here’s the guy spends $500 million and he doesn’t go to jail.

ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: Mr. President, but with TikTok. But do you believe that TikTok is a national security threat or not? Because if it is, and I believe that you’re, the emergency powers order that you would put in place at the time, suggested that it was, was that not true?

DONALD TRUMP: I do believe that. I do believe it. And we have to very much go into privacy and make sure that we are protecting the American people’s privacy and data rights, and I agree, but, you know, we also have that problem with other you have that problem with Facebook and lots of other companies too.

I mean, they get the information, they get plenty of information, and they deal with China and they’ll do whatever China wants. You know, if you look at, some of our American companies, when you talk about, highly sophisticated companies that you think are American, they’re not so American.

They deal in China, and China, if China wants anything from them, they will give it. So that’s a national security risk also.

But when I look at it, I’m not looking to make Facebook double the size. And if you, if you ban TikTok, Facebook and others, but mostly Facebook will be a big beneficiary. And I think Facebook has been very just, I think Facebook has been very bad for our country, especially when it comes to elections.

ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: Mr. president, you met recently with Jeff Yass, who’s a hedge fund manager, has a stake in TikTok. He’s a huge GOP donor. Steve Bannon has suggested that you’ve been paid off, to to switch your view. How did your your view change? How did that come about? And did you have a conversation with Jeff Yass about it?

DONALD TRUMP: No, I didn’t, and I met with him very briefly. I made a speech and I said hello to him. And his wife who’s lovely. And actually, her primary thing was on education. She wants choice as I do. And, she mentioned to me more than anything, you know, we talked about education.

It was a meeting that lasted for a few minutes. No, the only one I met was, I met them both. And, you know, I never. I don’t think I ever met him before, but he never mentioned Tik Tok. She did mention school choice, and that’s what, in fact, she said, my whole life is based around school. Choice was a very important thing to her.

President Joe Biden was asked about banning TikTok as he gaggled with reporters before boarding Air Force One Friday. His answer was considerably shorter:

Q Mr. President, do you still support banning TikTok? Would you sign that bill?

THE PRESIDENT: If they pass it, I’ll sign it.

In July of 2020, Trump told reporters on Air Force One “As far as TikTok is concerned we’re banning them from the United States,” and added “Well, I have that authority. I can do it with an executive order or that.”

But the order he signed was blocked in court.

Watch above via CNBC.