Critics Convinced Trump Wants TikTok Banned Because Sarah Cooper Is Driving Him Nuts
There’s a new conspiracy theory in town: Donald Trump wants TikTok drop-kicked out of the U.S. because he can’t stand comedian Sarah Cooper’s blistering presidential impersonations.
Trump told reporters on Friday that he plans to ban the Chinese-owned short-form video-sharing app from operating in the U.S. “As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” he declared aboard Air Force One. The president claimed he could use emergency economic powers to ban the app — possibly as early as Saturday.
Trump says he has security concerns about TikTok becasue it’s owned by the Chinese. But perhaps not so coincidentally many users have forged a strong anti-Trump identity.
TikTok users in June flooded the Trump campaign with fake requests for seat reservations at the president’s Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally, and proudly took a bow for the thousands of empty seats on the big day.
More recently, they savaged the Trump campaign app with vicious reviews to hit back at the president following his first announcement last month — after the Tulsa rally — that he was going to shut TikTok down.
Cooper was back trolling Trump on Friday over his threats against TikTok in a skit called “How to tick tock” on YouTube (see the video up top), and “How to tick tack” on Twitter. “This wasn’t made with TikTok,” Cooper smirked when reposting another skit Friday about Trump’s cognitive abilities.
How to tick tack pic.twitter.com/1Mn8nk363f
— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) July 31, 2020
That’s just what Trump doesn’t appreciate, Cooper fans responded.
Who else thinks that Donald Trump wants to ban TickTock because of Sarah Cooper’s hilarious videos?
— HippieChick (@DetHippieChick) July 31, 2020
I think it's because of the TikTok kids that signed up for Tulsa rally tickets
— DCPeskin 💙 🇺🇸 🌊 🏳️🌈 🤦🏻♀️ (@DCPeskin) July 31, 2020
BREAKING: Trump says he's issuing an executive order to ban TikTok in the United States and we all know it's because Sarah Cooper made fun of him.
— Brandon Besserer (@BrandonBesserer) August 1, 2020
Trump: Sarah Cooper is being mean to me! I don’t like it when girls are mean to me! Ban Tik Tok because girls are mean to me!
— Meredith Lee (@meralee727) August 1, 2020
I don't think banning TikTok is going to slow Sarah Cooper down one bit! Nice try, Chump. 😆🤣
— Strictly BLM (@christoq) August 1, 2020
Sarah Cooper is the real reason Trump is banning TikTok https://t.co/VBXT9SBoE5
— Jesse McLaren (@McJesse) August 1, 2020
Literally the ONLY way I can listen to his voice.
— BillH (@mrhortywho) July 31, 2020
Trump wants to get rid of
• The Post Office
• Moms in Portland
• Obama
• Sarah Cooper
• TikTok
Trump doesn't want to get rid of
• The KKK
• Ghislaine Maxwell
• Coronavirus— JRehling (@JRehling) August 1, 2020
Sarah Cooper now occupies the first floor of trump’s head.
— Baligubadle (@Baligubadle1) August 1, 2020
Trump can try & ban TikTok but one thing he can't undo is the fact that the platform helped fuel the fame & success of one particular comedian, Sarah Cooper, whose work consistently exposes the absurdity & stupidity of so much of what Trump says & does!
— MURRAY 🗽 (@murray_nyc) August 1, 2020
Y’all Sarah Cooper is great. But please stop treating Trump like a joke. First time people did that he became president. He’s not just banning TikTok because she upsets him. Zuckerburg is literally rolling out a competitor next month.
— Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) August 1, 2020
Microsoft was rumored to be in discussions with TikTok owner ByteDance to buy the app. But Trump reportedly made it clear he is not in favor of allowing a U.S. company to purchase it.
POTUS made clear he is against proposed spinoff of Tik Tok with a resale to Microsoft or another company.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 1, 2020
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.