Oh please. The people who complained didn't care about that. They didn't like Trump, and would complain about anything he did regardless of the merit. They are nakedly partisan.
The ACLU dislikes any restriction based on national security. I imagine they’d make the same arguments regardless of which party removed TikTok.
But the broader public, reporters, and experts
absolutely base their decisions on how trustworthy they find rationales. National security arguments often boil down to “we are correct but can’t tell you why, trust us.”
Mixing trade wars into that certainly helps skepticism.
I didn't like Trump but that wasn't why I was opposed to the TikTok ban. I was opposed because it was pointless and stupid. If we want to ban Chinese businesses because of human rights abuses, fine, let's start banning imports -- hit 'em where it counts! Let's not waste people's limited time and money banning a silly mobile app.
