Trumps TikTok about-face risks US security and his own legacy

Donald Trump forged a bipartisan consensus that correctly identifies the People’s Republic of China as an enemy deserving of confrontation, rather than appeasement.When Trump descended his golden escalator in 2015, the Chinese Communist Party was still benefiting from the United States’ failure to see its brutal regime for what it was — as well as the naïve American hope that integrating the PRC into the global community would yield ideological moderation.Trump saw through this illusion, won the presidency and in so doing opened the eyes of the rest of the political class.Americans owe him a debt of gratitude for that service.But now, after pushing the ball down to the one-yard line, he’s contemplating taking a knee.Last year, President Biden signed a bill that would ban the popular social media platform TikTok in the US if it’s not sold by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, by Jan.19.In a puzzling reversal, Trump has not only professed to have a “warm spot” in his heart for this virtual weapon, but has actually filed a legal brief urging the Supreme Court to prevent the ban from going into effect, ahead of a hearing set for Friday.“We did go on TikTok and we had a great response, we had billions of views,” Trump boasted last month.“Maybe we got to keep this sucker around a little while.”To the contrary, Mr.

President-elect, that sucker has got to go.This week, The Wall Street Journal made it clear why, as it reported that Chinese hackers have infiltrated US infrastructure and telecommunications networks in anticipation of a future military conflict — likely over Taiwan.Brandon Wales, the former executive director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told the Journal that the infiltrations were “designed to ensure they prevail by keeping the US from projecting power, and inducing chaos at home” in the event of such a conflict.It’s proof that Trump had it right the first time: The PRC is a malicious actor with ...