Former White House adviser Steve Bannon jumped on Donald Trump over his opposition to banning TikTok — suggesting his ex-boss’ objections may be motivated by a billionaire donor who holds a large stake in the Chinese-owned app.
Bannon, who was fired as a White House adviser after critical quotes about the then-president were reported in a book, posted a link on social media site Gettr to an Axios news story titled, “Inside Trump’s TikTok flip-flop.”
“Simple: Yass Coin,” Bannon wrote in the caption on the right-leaning microblogging site.
Bannon was referring to Jeff Yass, a major Republican Party donor who owns a 15% stake in TikTok owner ByteDance.
Trump, who is expected to get the Republican nod for a rematch against Joe Biden in November, was recently invited by Yass to speak at a gathering hosted by Club for Growth, a pro-business conservative group that also opposes a ban on TikTok.
The Post has sought comment from Trump.
The Axios story noted that during Trump’s presidency he had pushed to ban TikTok due to national security concerns.
But the former president has now reversed course amid a push by Congress that would force ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok within six months.
“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform last week.
Trump’s reversal puts him at odds with senior voices in his own party such as Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), as well as prominent right-leaning commentators on cable such as Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
“I’m not a fan of Facebook, but TikTok is a qualitatively different deal. It’s a backdoor for the Communist Chinese party,” Hawley recently told reporters.
The Republican-led House is poised to vote in favor of the bill Wednesday.
The measure will then head to the Senate.
Biden has indicated he will sign the bill if it makes it to his desk.
Some Gettr users agreed with Bannon’s post by criticizing Trump.
One of them wrote: “What’s his reasoning? Really makes no sense. Why condone anything that helps or lets China gather more information on Americans in order to better understand how to destroy Us?”
Others backed Trump, saying that the discussion about banning TikTok is meant as a destraction.
“It’s Red Hearing [sic] when the [deep state] is using Google and [Facebook] to destroy its own citizens,” one Gettr user wrote.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
