The TikTok “deal” isn’t a victory for the free market or national security—it’s a $10 billion shakedown that should terrify every American who values the Rule of Law.
For years, we’ve been told that TikTok is a unique threat to our privacy. But instead of addressing the Fourth Amendment or passing broad data protection for all citizens, the Executive Branch has decided to act as a high-stakes power broker. By demanding a massive “brokerage fee” paid directly to the Treasury, the administration has effectively turned national security into a protection racket.
Since when does the U.S. government take a “cut” of a private corporate merger? This isn’t regulation; it’s state-sponsored extortion.
If a company is a threat to national security, you address the threat. You don’t “license” the threat back to the company in exchange for a $10 billion check. By allowing ByteDance to keep a 20% stake and control over the algorithm, the administration has admitted this was never about the “Chinese Communist Party” threat—it was about who gets to control the spigot of information and who gets to collect the toll.
This sets a chilling precedent. We are moving away from a nation governed by predictable laws and toward a system of “crony capitalism,” where the survival of your business depends on how much you’re willing to kick back to the central government. Today it’s TikTok; tomorrow it could be any company the President decides is a “threat” unless they pay up.
We don’t need “deal-makers” in Washington; we need the Constitution. If we want to protect Americans’ data, we should stop the government from spying on us first, rather than using federal power to extract billions from the private sector. This isn’t “Art of the Deal”—it’s the death of the Free Market.
