In a stunning turn of events, Donald Trump is getting credit where it’s due with regard to his past statements while in office about China’s TikTok app. Senator Mark Warren (D-VA) is sounding the alarm that the popular app might indeed pose digital security risks.
Warner, speaking in Australia with local authorities to address what the Epoch Times called a scary “technological domination that the Chinese regime is exerting over other countries,”sounded both the alarm and his regret at giving the former president proper due.
“This is not something you would normally hear me say, but Donald Trump was right on TikTok years ago,” he stated. “If your country uses Huawei, if your kids are on TikTok, if your population uses WeChat as a social media platform, the ability for China to have undue influence is, I think, a much greater challenge and a much more immediate threat than any kind of actual, armed conflict.”
Warner continued: “China having this kind of technology domination in a number of countries ought to scare the heck out of us because we’ve seen the kind of Orwellian surveillance state they’ve already created within China.”
In 2020, warned of TikTok’s affiliation with Chinese ownership and warned of a growing problem surrounding data insecurities and unfettered access to Americans by the CCP. At the time, redundant left-wing media portrayed his speech and actions – he signed an executive order to halt, something that was ultimately struck down in federal court – as wild conspiracy theories. Here is how NPR covered the issue at the time:
Trump’s logic went something like this: Since TikTok’s corporate parent company ByteDance is headquartered in Beijing, TikTok could be used as an arm of the Chinese Communist Party to spy on American citizens or cause other mischief.
So the president repeatedly declared that TikTok needs to free itself from ByteDance’s control, or be shut down in the U.S. for good.
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The White House never offered any real proof to support its fear that TikTok is a Chinese surveillance tool. But national security experts on both sides of the aisle in Washington agreed that China’s authoritarian regime is untrustworthy and has almost unfettered access to private business in the country. And so, a review of TikTok’s data privacy and security appeared reasonable.
Moreover, NPR angled their story to make sure readers saw the clear political implications in the deal, as the proposed merger to American servers would benefit a billionaire donor’s company. NPR continued:
Oracle has close ties to the president, and some say it’s one reason why it beat out a deep-pocketed and well-positioned rival such as Microsoft. Larry Ellison, Oracle’s Chairman and founder, is an ardent supporter of Trump and has raised money for the president. It’s Chief Executive Safra Catz served on Trump’s 2016 transition team.
What a difference just a few years make. Now, Senator Warner is gathering in Australia for the specific purpose of addressing digital security and both are concerned with China’s ability to infiltrate and impressionate western culture.
Add this to the list of things the former president was right about.