White House claims expansive power to nullify TikTok ban and other laws | Hacker News Reader

White House claims expansive power to nullify TikTok ban and other laws

nytimes.com

105 pointsytpete60 comments

As far as power grab politics go, this is a smart move, picking something so popular yet relatively low impact as far as real world issues go. It's a total Trojan Horse of course.

No different than sanctuary cities or the de facto legalization of marijuana.

It is different, because no one purported that those things made illegal immigrants or substances permanently legal.

They just decided not to prioritize enforcement.

> Attorney General Pam Bondi told tech companies that they could lawfully violate a statute barring American companies from supporting TikTok based on a sweeping claim that President Trump has the constitutional power to set aside laws, newly disclosed documents show.

> Ms. Bondi wrote that Mr. Trump had decided that shutting down TikTok would interfere with his “constitutional duties,” so the law banning the social media app must give way to his “core presidential national security and foreign affairs powers.”

> The letters ... portrayed Mr. Trump as having nullified the legal effects of a statute that Congress passed by large bipartisan majorities in 2024 and that the Supreme Court unanimously upheld.

Of course, all that stuff about vetoes and overriding vetoes in the actual text of the Constitution were just a trap for the previous 250 years of presidents who weren't smart enough to find the secret hidden clause that lets them just arbitrarily decide that certain laws don't apply.

Buckle up, here comes the attempt at a dictatorship. There's a reason our constitution has checks and balances... and no, LEGALLY the president can't just ignore laws. But in this timeline I guess anything goes.

He hasn't abided by any checks nor balances so far. If you're not buckled up long ago, what exactly were you waiting for?

Good luck America, good luck the rest of the world.

The checks and balances come after the Executive branch (or any of the three branches) oversteps. They can't come before. If all three other branches refuse to do anything about it, how is that not the system working as intended?

I don't know why you were down voted this is exactly correct. The system is not working as intended though; it was designed to be adversarial with each branch expected to want to keep its own power. The whole system falls apart when the other branches of government simply abdicate all their power.

Congress didn't _abdicate_ their power. Trump stole it. One of his first actions in office was to free the violent mob he sent after Congress last time they exercised power against him.

There's a much stronger argument that Trump's personality cult in the current GOP legislature is doing the same.

Threatening primaries and social media tirades against his legislative opponents chases any Republican willing to check him out of the party.

I mean, Christ, only 2 fiscal conservative Republicans had an issue with deficit spending greater than what the House had passed? And a debt limit increase?

The real problem with Congressional GOP independence is that enough of them don't decide something is too much at the same time. Ones and twos are easily picked off.

If we're being honest, the GOP never had a problem with deficit spending. It was under Republican administrations that the debt and deficits have grown the most, after all.

It just happens to be a useful cudgel to beat the Democrats over the head anytime they want to spend money, both because the debt really is something that will have to be addressed at some point and because most voters are too stupid (or willfully ignorant) to keep track of which party is really doing all the spending and what said spending has been for.

We're way past that point. The Trump regime is currently prosecuting a Congressmember on fabricated charges in retaliation for opposing his immigration policy. We've seen the same dynamic on the tariffs; a substantial majority of Congress knows the tariffs are bad and does not support them, but the Trumpists would never permit it to come up for a vote.

LEGALLY:

  the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Trump v. United States (2024) that all presidents have absolute criminal immunity for official acts under core constitutional powers, presumptive immunity for other official acts, and no immunity for unofficial acts.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_immunity_in_the_U...

PRACTICALLY:

  the current and former POTUS has demonstrated he can ignore laws and that either no one will attempt to bell the cat or, if attempted, succeed in any meaningful way.

Things really are getting scary.

Tech people with bold ideas. Don’t go to America. Don’t build your companies there. Don’t employ Americans. Build it anywhere else.

America ain’t what it used to be. It’s slowly but surely becoming a dictatorship and it’ll be run by the dumbest American to ever live: Donald J Trump.

> the dumbest American to ever live: Donald J Trump

While like many, I can't stand him, I'm not sure if that's an accurate statement. He (or his handlers) have done an amazing job of leveraging the anger and fear of tens of millions. He's built a "tribe" that those pitching all those podcasts and courses a few years ago could only dream about.

Much of my anger is actually for the minds behind project 20205 and the decades long effort by a cabal of people to basically create a king and dunk on the libs at the expense of everything America used to stand for.

I also legit hate the orange idiot in office now. But that’s maybe a me thing.

Also the eroding of the rule of law is very very disconcerting.

There was a viral post on this topic recently: https://old.reddit.com/r/thebulwark/comments/1ljbvtw/hottest...

But ... the whole reason Trump got elected is the fact that the electorate has split into us-vs-them group identities, he works through polarization. And although this post captures how one group (let's call it the "internet generation") feels about the world, it's probably not helping with polarization.

You have to admire, in fact, how smart Trump is. Look at the central "problem" according to that post:

"But see, not everybody was thinking that Hillary Clinton was an alien, that global warming was a Chinese hoax and that what America needed most of all was a plywood wall stretching from Texas to California. Only the stupid people were"

Holy crap this is polarizing. AND WE DON'T EVEN DISAGREE ON THESE. These sort of statements are the exact opposite of what we need to defeat Trump. Because no, this is NOT a difference between "smart" and "dumb". If you abstract just a little bit ...

Hillary Clinton is an unpopular war hawk. Would you like her as president? I wouldn't, just about the only big positive I see in her is that it's long past time for a female president. But please: not her. She IS an alien in that I don't know who this woman represents. Not me, certainly, and I frankly don't see or know any group that she does represent. I'd MUCH prefer AOC, but frankly, I'd prefer Nikki Haley over her.

"Global warming is a Chinese hoax". This is the one I would most describe as "dumb". But ... not really global warming policy has not worked for 50 years. This is, of course, not a reason to give up on it, but it probably is time to change course bigtime. And, sorry, the protests about global warming ... are equally dumb as Trump's (made-in-china) MAGA caps.

"what America needs most ... wall stretching from Texas to California". Obviously "dumb" Americans like this because life has become ever more difficult and immigration (specifically pressure on the job market and housing market) is a huge and growing problem. Trump only gets points because he does something.

The ("our") internet generation is getting old. Perhaps not dying yet, but we are not young anymore. And the train has definitely left the station: nobody's growing up to be internet generation anymore. The only thing that is happening to the internet generation is that people are leaving it. Not in great numbers. Not yet. But we'll only be shrinking from 5 years ago forward. Yet another reason to find a way to agree with Trump's electorate.

I feel like these viewpoints (I hope) represent "the internet generation". My conclusion is Trump got elected because he convinced me and the "real Americans" that we disagree. We don't. These are superficial, not worth having a fight over and CERTAINLY not worth having a president like Trump over.

maybe he's just the cancer and we're the ones who have been ingesting the poison all along (doing nothing about income inequality, social and financial mobility, a sense of civic duty, the courts not bringing him to justice, etc etc). That doesn't change the fact that you excise the cancer with extreme prejudice otherwise it kills you.

You can't "excise the cancer" of Trump's voters, and that isn't the goal. My first point is that we shouldn't do that. These are normal people just like you and me. That they can live, have a job, and participate in discussing the future of America is a great thing. A good second point is if we try to just cut them out, we'll lose, because the "internet generation" shrinks while their generation grows. And a third point is that Trump is anything but a champion of "real Americans", so putting a wedge between those two is very doable.

Yeah i literally said “maybe he’s the cancer”…

Some voters are unwilling to see truth. Some are so high on their own supply of confirmation bias they can’t be swayed. Every idiot praying their legislator votes for the big beautiful bill but is dependent on Medicaid is voting irrationally - but because Trump told them to they will.

My excise comment was more about Trump and poor-exploiting-rich-people like him that feign care for structural ills but run and act in a hostile autocratic xenophobic and populist way.

I like to think that people voted for him despite his policies on immigration and others because they thought this idiot real estate mogul turned reality TV star was an actually competent business person and yet …

The man failed at selling steaks in America, casinos, ran fraudulent universities, stole from veterans in charity money … the list is nigh infinite.

This is because you attack the symbol that they're proud of, rather than pointing out the policies. The problem is that the democrats are doing the same, like the blog post this is about.

The problem isn't Trump, and it certainly isn't Trump voters, it's the policy. Trump is nothing but a tasteless symbol of failure. But if someone wants a bust of him on an altar, who fucking cares?

The problem is that we AREN'T discussing policies. We aren't discussing whether cutting medicare is good or bad, we're discussing whether all democrats are terrorist lovers, and all republicans are dumb broke versions of uncle scrooge.

I honestly don't get this take. It treats US as special outlier. Right wing populists have won elections in many countries. While in other places RW populism is finding some foothold.

Truth is people all over the world are frustrated by how their lives are turning out.

On one hand they see politicians who want to keep the status quo and make promises which wouldn't change their lives. That is the Democrats in US. Too comfortable with their power.

On the other hand Right Wing populist promise simple answers to complex questions. Many of these populist leaders are seen as "outsider". Many places are seeing rise in anti-immigrant and anti-poor sentiments. Because that is the simplest answer - outsiders/freeloaders are to blame for all the issues.

By the time people realize that they have been fooled by the RW simplistic answer it is already too late. Either there is catastrophic damage (ex.. Brexit) or dictatorship (ex. Hungary).

Nearly every country thinks it is unique and can come out of this unscathed. But no one can escape the damage. Some people still think that Trump as a dictator is long shot. But that is what is happening. And people cheering him on have something to gain or they have fallen for the simple answer - "outsiders are to blame".

Why is the answer right wing populists though? Look at the policies of Zadani in NYC. I’d take a liberal populist over a xenophobic autocrat every day and twice on Sunday.

> Zadani in NYC Zadani? You mean Mamdani?

RW often promise one shot "obvious" fix - build the wall, deportation - which the unnamed "they" aren't doing because of vested interest. People don't want complex answers. Its the same as dieting - a magic pill is much better than a well laid out diet plan. Even if the magic pill is going to create long term damage.

The other side is branded as communism or socialism. Like Mamdani.

And many places have being pushing nationalistic pride and stories about the glorious past. This leads nicely into full on fascism. Its always ironic when American RWs like to call others fascist while being the picture perfect example of fascists themselves. Always harping on "MAGA" or "USA! USA!" slogans

I think you mean his cronies and conspirators: Steven Miller, SCOTUS, Russel Voght, et al.

Trump will eventually go away. What's really concerning is the replacement being someone much more intelligent and competent. Some of whom are already running the show behind the scenes.

The people behind the scenes running the show rarely migrate to center stage. They just find the next performer to manipulate from behind the curtains.

The fact that Trump will eventually go away is precisely why people should avoid the US until he does. At age 79, he probably doesn't have enough time left to massacre too many citizens, but he's got plenty of time to send immigrants who displease him to CECOT. I'm not saying people who already have a life in the US need to flee, but if you don't the US will still be here whenever he's not.

Also, he’s pretty dumb but the real problem is his absolute and total lack of empathy. What a sociopath.

> In letters to companies like Apple and Google, Ms. Bondi wrote that Mr. Trump had decided that shutting down TikTok would interfere with his “constitutional duties,” so the law banning the social media app must give way to his “core presidential national security and foreign affairs powers.”

This is like tariff negotiations with the whole world being about a fentanyl emergency. I can't wait to hear oral arguments on this in 2027 after this supposed power is temporarily upheld from the shadow docket.

Ridiculous that this got flagged. Do people think that Trump rewriting laws to suit his whim isn't going to become relevant to their own companies and projects?

I don't think it's ridiculous that it got flagged - it's only superficially about technology, and is instead mostly about general US politics. Many people don't think HN is the place to discuss general US politics. (I wouldn't personally flag it since it doesn't seem like it's already all over multiple news sites.)

There's no "instead". This story is extremely relevant to the many HNers who run tech companies or make regulatory decisions on their behalf. They need to know that tech regulations are written by executive fiat now, they can't trust that any statutory text means what it says, and many of their competitors are seeking out ways to bribe the Trump regime for regulatory advantages.

I understand that a lot of those people enjoy the polite fiction that partisan controversies in Washington have nothing to do with their jobs. I do too, and I hope that we can get back to a world where it's practical soon. But sticking your head in the sand won't save you.

You're conflating the audience with the venue; people who read HN can also read NYT or Reddit or whatever for their US political news. It's not any of our individual responsibilities to decide what people here "need to know"; that's the whole point of the voting and flagging system.

Honestly, no, it's not the least bit surprising that this was flagged. It's a damn-near inevitable consequence of letting anyone on the internet flag things.

What's truly ridiculous (though not surprising [0]) is that it still hasn't been white listed by HN moderators. They're the ones who bear responsibility for this major story being suppressed.

0 - Growing list of recent falsely flagged stories here: https://news.ycombinator.com/favorites?id=mandmandam

Not so ridiculous when you realize who runs this site.

I'd expect them to be especially interested! It's virtually certain that some number of YC companies over the next four years will find themselves in a similar position to TikTok over the next four years, wondering whether they can get away with bribing Trump to rewrite a law in their favor.

They still believe they're in the in-group maybe? Or they're just that ideologically captive.

On the one hand, this is terrifying precedent for future behavior. On the other hand, the ban is stupid and shouldn't exist, so it's hard for me to get upset. Sometimes the right things happen in the wrong way.

If he wants the ban gone, he should push for Congress to overturn it, with whatever veto threats or other political pressure he wants to offer as motivation. He shouldn’t claim a broad power to ignore the law. And he can’t credibly claim the TikTok ban is unconstitutional when it’s already been upheld by SCOTUS.

This is the way. When you control all three branches of government, why not use that power to do things the right way? Not doing it the right way is the power grab, and that's the point.

That's why this is the perfect issue for an autocratic power grab: there will be many who applaud it, even those who are young and vehemently opposed to him. Standing on principles can be difficult, as it often requires losing something you love.

No - don’t fall for it

We have a system in place to undo congressional action

That never justifies doing them the wrong way.

Democrats should just declare they hold the law as valid and any tech company that ignores it will suffer the consequences it prescribes when they come back into power.

That's part of an obvious winning strategy, but the establishment is too stupid and weak to notice that hate and resentment are the main drivers of modern politics. Instead, they'll keep trying to "build bridges" and "seek bipartisanship" with a group of people that cheer on the murder of one of them [1].

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/17/melissa-hort...

The establishment aren't stupid and weak when they're fighting progressive candidates, third parties, or peaceful anti-genocide protesters. Or when they're enabling a holocaust while pretending to 'work tirelessly for a ceasefire'. They're shockingly competent when they want to be.

And the 'bipartisan' 'reaching out across the isle' has been their go-to since Obama used his super-majority to pass a Republican health care plan and ignore his campaign promises around torture, abortion, etc. I'm amazed it's still working for them.

The other ones they love to use are 'they go low we go high', or, 'we're just following procedure'; like when they 'failed' [0] to prevent a rapist, racist insurrectionist from running for Presidency again.

0 - https://sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/servants-of-the-mafia-s...

Indeed, you are very right. At this point they are nothing but controlled opposition.

The Democrats are controlled opposition, they don't actually give a damn as long as they maintain power in the new regime.

will suffer the consequences it prescribes if they come back into power.

I guess we'll see in the mid-terms, but there's no guarantee at this point. A few special elections is not a telling of things to come for the whole country regardless of how many news articles hoping it does. Do not count on a blue wave as much as you would like it to happen. The right is just that much better at getting their message out than the left will ever be. It's much easier when you can just make stuff up and lie about everything that is verifiably false and your base eats it up. You can't counter that, at least they have shown no concept of being able to yet.

> The right is just that much better at getting their message out than the left will ever be.

Absolutely true of the democrats, not so much of the actual left. Look at Mamdani's meteoric rise in the NYC mayoral primaries. Granted, it was in a very progressive city but still.

I am absolutely a single issue voter, for as long as Trump is alive, on who will promise the most punishment for him and everyone associated with him for their misdeeds.

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