White House claims expansive power to nullify TikTok ban and other laws
46 comments
·July 4, 2025ytpete
> 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.
saghm
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.
tw04
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.
DanHulton
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?
sheiyei
Good luck America, good luck the rest of the world.
fastball
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?
wvenable
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.
SpicyLemonZest
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.
gigatexal
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.
bdcravens
> 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.
imiric
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.
nielsbot
Also, he’s pretty dumb but the real problem is his absolute and total lack of empathy. What a sociopath.
nielsbot
I think you mean his cronies and conspirators: Steven Miller, SCOTUS, Russel Voght, et al.
defrost
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.
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.AtariATMHacker
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histo9
Obama, Bush and many other presidents have done similar things. Bush famously had his signing statements. Here's a comprehensive list linked below. Not banning TikTok and deporting tens of millions of illegals (which won't happen) isn't exactly totalitarianism.
https://journals.law.harvard.edu/jlpp/wp-content/uploads/sit...
majormajor
Gosh, if Ted Cruz thought Obama was abusing his powers, and now Democrats think Trump is, Cruz must be lining up bi-partisan legislation to finally crack down on the ability of the President to abuse powers!
eli_gottlieb
If Congress and SCOTUS say to ban TikTok, the President needs to go ahead and ban TikTok.
SpicyLemonZest
You know full well that this isn't the same thing, which is why you've created a new account so your fascist apologia won't be linked with your main. He's claiming the authority not just to selectively enforce laws, but to rewrite them. (Why do the companies care about this distinction? They're worried, correctly, that many of us will demand the next administration prosecute them for what's now been months of flagrant lawbreaking.)
cosmicgadget
> 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.
xnx
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.
jkaplowitz
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.
dylan604
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.
bdcravens
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.
foogazi
No - don’t fall for it
We have a system in place to undo congressional action
cosmicgadget
That never justifies doing them the wrong way.
napierzaza
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SpicyLemonZest
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?
thrance
They still believe they're in the in-group maybe? Or they're just that ideologically captive.
mandmandam
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
siliconc0w
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.
thrance
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...
mandmandam
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...
dylan604
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.
thrance
> 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.
SpicyLemonZest
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.
almosthere
[flagged]
aaron695
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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.