Donald Trump told a pre-inaugural, MAGA-heavy rally that “TikTok is back,” as he has pledged to sign an executive order that will give the social media platform more time amid a new U.S. law requiring a divestiture from its Chinese parent ByteDance.
Trump said that he wants the United States to have a 50% ownership of the platform in a joint venture, but it is unclear exactly what that would entail and whether ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, would agree to such conditions.
“We’re not putting up any money,” Trump said. “All we’re doing is given them the approval without which they don’t have anything. It sounds like that works, what do you think, good?”
TikTok went offline starting late Saturday as a new law took effect that restricted app stores in the U.S. from downloading the popular platform. But TikTok went back up this afternoon, as the company credited Trump for giving assurances that, once in office, he would not move to sanction service providers for carrying the app.
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The rally at the Capitol One Arena largely played like his many campaign events, as Trump vowed the “largest mass deportation in history,” referred to illegal immigrant criminals as “animals,” and played a video mash up of news reports of crimes committed by undocumented individuals. He railed against the Joe Biden and his administration, again called out David Muir over the way he moderated the ABC News debate, and continued to insist that the 2020 election was rigged.
But Trump also gave some indication of what will unfold in his initial week after he returns to office.
On Friday, he plans to visit Los Angeles to tour the wildfire devastation that has destroyed Pacific Palisades and Altadena. He indicated that he met recently with Los Angeles Olympics organizers, including Casey Wasserman, and that “because of the wildfires, they’re going to do a special, special job.” He also vowed to “rebuild Los Angeles better, more beautiful than ever before.”
Trump said that he also would be releasing the remaining records of the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., something that Robert Kennedy Jr., his choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has called for.
Trump told the crowd that he will sign an executive order on Monday so “the invasion of our borders will have come to a halt, and all the illegal border trespassers will in some form or another, be on their way back home.” But he also plans to sign dozens of other executive orders in the coming days, including ones aimed at the federal workforce and Biden’s climate policies.
Among the speakers at the rally were Jon Voight and Dana White, while Kid Rock was among the performers. Trump’s sons, Don Jr. and Eric, also spoke, as did his adviser Stephen Miller.
During his one-hour speech, Trump called up Elon Musk, joined by his toddler son X, the only one of the president-elect’s allies to share the stage with him. Musk, who reportedly spent $250 million to help Trump get elected, is leading an effort dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk told the crowd that “what matters going forward is to actually make significant changes…and set the foundation for America to be strong for a century.”
Trump has indicated that when he gives his inaugural address on Monday, he will deliver a message of “unity.” But the rally leaned much more heavily into campaign attacks on the left and so-called “woke culture,” with Trump and other speakers decrying the transgender rights movement, DEI and critical race theory.
One speaker, Megyn Kelly, attacked Hollywood celebrities “who get up there and try to tell us how to vote,” even though Trump himself drew on figures like Voight and others in his campaign. Among those also at the rally were Sylvester Stallone, who, along with Voight and Mel Gibson, have been chosen to be Trump’s “ambassadors” to Hollywood.
Trump also went after he sees as military weakness, with a video that contrasted soldiers in combat with a military message promoting a Pride celebration.
That said, Trump’s rally ended with the current incarnation of the Village People, singing the gay anthem “YMCA,” which also became a signature MAGA campaign song. On stage, Trump shuffled his hands and arms and danced away.
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