Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office to sign a series of pardons and executive orders, including his promise to delay implementation of a law restricting TikTok.
The order delays implementation of a law for 90 days, Trump said, as he said that he was determined to find a buyer and work out an arrangement in which the U.S. owns 50% of the platform.
Trump said that the order “gives him the right to sell it or close it,” although he said that he may need to get an approval from China. He insisted that “TikTok is worthless if I don’t approve it.”
The parent company of TikTok, ByteDance, has given no indication that it was willing to sell the social media platform since Congress passed the divest-or-be-banned law in an overwhelming bipartisan vote last week.
Trump is following through on what has been described as a “shock and awe” series of actions to start his presidency.
Trump also said he signed a pardon of about 1,500 January 6th defendants and commuting six sentences.
Trump also signed orders declaring a national emergency at the southern border and clarifying the definition of birthright citizenship. The latter is likely to be challenged in court on constitutional grounds.
Trump signed the orders before a pool of White House reporters, and he seemed to relish answering questions in between adding his signature to the orders.
At one point, he was asked whether he had read a letter left by Joe Biden. Trump said he didn’t know about it, then opened the top drawer of the Resolute Desk and found it. He declined to open it and read it in front of the press.
At one point, Trump seemed to relish that his accessibility was a contrast to that of his predecessor, who took a minimal amount of questions from the pooled press in Oval Office moments.
Other executive orders were aimed at the federal workforce.
“We are getting rid of all the cancer caused by the Biden administration,” Trump said.
Trump also said that he is planning 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, set to go into effect on Feb. 1.
More to come.
