Former President Donald Trump was asked on Monday why he had apparently changed his mind on the merits of banning TikTok, but his answer left the New York Times somewhat puzzled.
In fact, the Times' coverage of Trump's remarks, which were made to CNBC's "Squawk Box," described them as "rambling" in the headline.
"Former President Donald J. Trump offered a rambling and confusing explanation on Monday of why he had reversed himself on whether the United States should ban TikTok over concerns that its Chinese ownership poses a threat to national security," reported the Times.
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"In a CNBC interview, Mr. Trump said that he still considered the social media app a national security threat but that banning it would make young people 'go crazy.' He added that any action harming TikTok would benefit Facebook, which he called an 'enemy of the people.'"
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Additionally, notes the Times, Trump strangely claimed that Facebook was as beholden to China as TikTok is despite the fact that China has actually blocked access to Facebook within its borders.
The report goes on to note that Trump actually tried to ban TikTok while he was in office, as he enacted a policy that could have forced TikTok's Chinese parent company to sell it or get banned in America on Google and Apple app stores.
Billionaire Jeff Yass, a major investor in TikTok recently met with Trump as the former president tries to shore up finances for his third presidential campaign.
"Mr. Yass, who has previously been a harsh critic of Mr. Trump’s, appears to have had his own change of heart," writes the Times. "An official at a pro-Trump super PAC declined to say whether Mr. Yass had donated money to the outside group, but a person close to the campaign said the Trump team expected a significant donation from Mr. Yass to one of the outside groups backing the former president."
However, it is unclear if this meeting or something else was responsible for Trump's change of heart about the app.
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