WASHINGTON – In a legislative whirlwind on Wednesday, President Biden inked his signature on a colossal $95 billion military aid package backing Ukraine’s battered forces and re-arming Israel, while simultaneously green-lighting a bombshell ban on TikTok if the video-sharing juggernaut remains under Chinese ownership.
The head-spinning flurry of bill signings showcased Biden’s deft politicking in forging an against-the-odds bipartisan compromise on Ukraine after months of heated negotiations with his Republican antagonists on Capitol Hill. But the accompanying TikTok frontal assault injected fresh controversy by threatening to cut off millions of young liberal Americans from their favorite online hangout.
“This law is vital backup for America’s friends defending their sovereign soil,” Biden declared at the White House ceremony, vowing Ukraine’s depleted arsenals would be quickly restocked with a $61 billion armaments air-drop commencing within hours.
Another $26 billion is earmarked for shoring up Israel’s defensive capabilities, a premiere U.S. ally routinely targeted by militants. Gaza will also receive $1 billion in humanitarian assistance, while $8 billion is slated for balancing China’s military muscling in the Pacific.
Yet the president pulled no punches in slamming “MAGA Republicans” blindly loyal to predecessor Donald Trump for obstructing Ukraine’s life-or-death funding out of ludicrous scepticism over their grit to defeat Russia’s invading hordes.
“They are a battle-hardened, courageous force with total determination to win this fight,” Biden insisted of Ukraine’s forces.
But the White House’s overdue breakthrough for Kyiv’s cause came at a steep price – throwing the future of Gen Z’s beloved TikTok into legal limbo by forcing its Chinese owners to offload the viral video platform to untested new investors within a year, or face an outright U.S. ban.
That prospective death knell for TikTok’s addictive endless content feed of zany pranks and ultra-short skits sparked outrage among its heavily Democratic user base pivotal to Biden’s own 2024 re-election hopes in his expected rematch against Trump.
Yet Biden doubled-down by framing the trade-off as bolstering national security from the “tech-tonic” dangers of leaving Americans’ personal data vulnerable to Beijing’s authoritarian overreach.
So while shocking TikTok’s legions of die-hard devotees and igniting another social media firestorm, Biden managed to simultaneously boost Ukraine’s resistance against Russia’s aggression while modernizing Israel’s aging military hardware – a legislative trifecta resoundingly cheered by the Washington establishment.
