“Across Washington, China hawks are trying to draw a hard line against any plan that would let ByteDance maintain a degree of control of the company or insight into its underlying technology, both of which are banned by the bipartisan 2024 law passed by Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Trump is already violating that law by allowing the app to stay online. And if his promised deal goes through, Congress has almost no leverage to stop it: The law leaves final approval in the president\u2019s hands, and lawmakers can\u2019t take him to court even if he violates its clear meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCongress does not have standing to sue,\u201d said Alan Rozenshtein, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School. He said a lawmaker can typically only file suit if they\u2019re personally harmed by a violation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An illegal TikTok-Oracle deal blessed by Trump would immediately join a host of White House actions that flout settled law. The Trump administration is being sued for breaking laws around deportations, civil-service protections, federal spending rules, government data-sharing and more \u2014 all of which are now playing out in federal courts across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to TikTok, however, even the courts offer little recourse to enforce the 2024 law, which the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The law requires a \u201cqualified divestiture\u201d of TikTok \u2014 an arrangement where ByteDance gives up all control of both the company and the powerful algorithm that runs TikTok\u2019s video-sharing service. It can retain at most a 20 percent financial stake in the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Oracle deal under discussion \u2014 a modification of a prior arrangement between TikTok and Oracle, where U.S. user data was stored on Oracle-run servers while ByteDance retained a role in TikTok\u2019s operations \u2014 would likely flunk one or more of those tests. But it\u2019s Trump who is ultimately empowered to declare an agreement acceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe president gets to decide what constitutes a qualified divestiture,\u201d said Michael Sobolik, a former national security staffer for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute. \u201cThat is completely up to him, even though the contours of what needs to happen in a divestiture are spelled out in the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China hawks on Capitol Hill are rattling their sabers at Trump, warning against any deal that keeps ByteDance in the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe law is clear,\u201d Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chair of the House Select Committee on China, wrote on Tuesday. \u201cAny deal must eliminate Chinese influence and control over the app to safeguard our interests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Moolenaar and other lawmakers have few options to stop Trump once he decides to proceed. And lawyers say Washington\u2019s sense of powerlessness is compounded by the fact that the White House is already ignoring the TikTok law.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n