President Trump’s Inauguration Pushed Indoors

President Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration is expected to be moved indoors because of the freezing temperatures set to hit Washington, D.C. Also, the U.S. Supreme Court just ruled that TikTok could be banned in the United States.

Let’s be honest: The news that the swearing-in ceremony could be moved inside the U.S. Capitol is probably a big sigh of relief for the U.S. Secret Service. We have already witnessed two assassination attempts on President Trump – a sad commentary on the state of America right now. The safety and security of everyone involved is paramount. At the same time, the news is a major disappointment for those who want to witness the historic moment in person.

Also, the Supreme Court’s ban on TikTok could go into effect as early as Monday. However, President Biden will kick the can down the road and let the Trump Administration deal with the ban. President Trump has already floated the idea of possibly issuing an Executive order to save TikTok.

Now a lot of people are upset or happy about the ban on TikTok. I personally have mixed feelings. For example, TikTok will not work on the servers at the ACLJ office because we know the national security threat that TikTok poses. We’ve warned you repeatedly how China uses TikTok to spy on Americans – the Communist Chinese Party is harvesting American citizens’ data and privacy through the app.

At the same time, an entire economy is built on TikTok. Many Americans have revenue streaming from the app. And I’m always very concerned whenever widespread censorship takes place. So it’s a bit of a gray area where conservatives could be at odds.

Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell weighed in on the TikTok ban:

This is a difficult issue. And I think President Trump is going about it the right way. Do you remember what we tried early in the days of TikTok? To just ban it or get an American company to host it – that was kind of the compromise. That didn’t work. The court said, no, you can’t ban it. So President Trump followed the rule of law, followed what the court said, and said, Okay, well, let’s try to get a more aggressive [American] ownership. . . . That’s where we are now. It hasn’t been able to be solved in the Biden Administration. So once again, here’s another issue that has to come back to Donald Trump’s plate, and we’re going to have to make sure that we find an American firm to not only buy it but to host it.

Obviously, Big Tech has been a problem for Americans. The ACLJ has fought against Big Tech’s unlawful censorship in courtrooms for years – the most egregious being when the Deep State FBI told Zuckerberg to quash any mentions of Hunter Biden’s laptop during the 2016 election cycle. We know this because on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Zuckerberg infamously admitted to being strong-armed by the U.S. government.

Yet with the incoming Trump Administration, Big Tech CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook appear to be adapting to the shifting winds. Zuckerberg claims that Meta (Facebook) will no longer censor political posts like before. We’ll see what – if anything – changes going forward.

And with TikTok’s invasion of privacy by a foreign government, it’s no surprise that the Supreme Court upheld the ban. What happens if our military members or people in the White House have TikTok on their phones and the Chinese can benefit? Such fears were part of the driving impetus behind the TikTok ban. We’ll keep you updated on what happens to TikTok in the days ahead.

Incidentally, the ACLJ has a new case involving another Big Tech company. In a shocking display of antisemitic vandalism, an Amazon employee defaced an American-Israeli author’s printed memoirs about her Holocaust-survivor father with blatantly antisemitic tropes. When our client opened the delivered books, she discovered that every copy had been defaced with antisemitic slurs and threatening messages like “Zionism kills Jews” and “From the River to the Sea Palestine Will be Free.”

Despite multiple attempts to resolve this issue through Amazon’s customer service channels, our client received inadequate responses and was initially denied assistance due to an expired return window. She reached out to us for help, and we are representing her free of charge.

The ACLJ issued a formal legal demand letter to Amazon. We’re demanding that Amazon 1) replace the destroyed books; 2) conduct a thorough investigation; 3) provide confirmation that the responsible party has been terminated and a report of the investigation; and 4) respond by January 23, 2025. If Amazon doesn’t comply, we will take further legal action.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included a full analysis of President Trump’s inauguration being moved indoors and the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the ban on TikTok.

Watch the full broadcast below: