GOP Senators are taking a hard line against TikTok and defying President Trump who wants to delay the app from getting banned with Sens. Tom Cotton and Lindsey Graham leading the charge

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) emerged as a key figure Sunday to stand up to President-elect Donald Trump on the latter’s vow to “save” TikTok from being banned in the US after its Chinese-owned parent company declined to divest from the video-sharing app in time to comply with US law.

Pete Hegseth, military analyst at Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. and US secretary of defense nominee for US President-elect Donald Trump, during a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Kent Nishimura)

Despite President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to issue an executive order extending ByteDance’s chance to sell TikTok before a national ban, multiple Republican lawmakers seemed to relish in the app’s shutdown.

President-elect Donald Trump promised to extend the deadline on the law that temporarily shut down the social media app over the weekend.

Senators Tom Cotton and Pete Ricketts said "there's no legal basis" for an extension to keep the social media platform online.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer slammed Republicans Thursday for blocking a last-ditch effort to extend TikTok’s lifespan in the U.S.

Shortly after service was restored, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) expressed his thoughts on the return on X, sharing TikTok's post. Here's what he said.

In a statement, senators disputed President-elect Donald Trump’s suggestion that he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day extension to bring the app back.

"The only “deal” should be unconditional surrender by Hamas—which is already nearly destroyed—and return of ALL hostages."

TikTok is owned by ByteDance, which many Republicans, including Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders, have decried as having “significant ties to the Chinese Communist Party.” No critic has been louder than Tom Cotton, who says TikTok is “a Chinese Communist spy app” that “ endangers our national security and poisons our children .”

Trump is expected to sign dozens of executive orders after he’s sworn in around noon on Monday. They will focus on immigration, the DEI culture wars, energy, and more. Fox News estimates Trump will sign more than 200 orders, while NBC News reports he will sign at least 50 and perhaps over 100.