The legislation was passed with the support of both Republicans and Democrats in Congress and was unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court justices earlier this week.
The release exposes the rift on key national security issues between the president-elect and members of his own party. His pick for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, openly supported the ban.
“TikTok has spread the power and influence of the Chinese Communist Party into our own nation right under our noses,” he said last April.
After Trump’s intervention on Sunday morning, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, a Republican senator from Arkansas, broke with Trump, saying any company that helps TikTok stay online is breaking the law.
“Any company that hosts, distributes, maintains, or otherwise promotes the communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars in legal liability, not only from the Department of Justice, but also under securities laws, shareholder lawsuits and state AGs,” he wrote on social media.
