President’s Digital Trade War With China Could Take Billions More Out of the US Ad Market

A year ago, the White House’s escalation of a trade war with China threatened to derail billions in ad spending by Chinese companies in the U.S. A year later, the White House is escalating the tension to explicitly include fast-growing and powerful digital media companies from China that have largely contributed to a boom in spending on U.S. media outlets.

Specifically, the President ordered bans on both TikTok and WeChat effective Sept. 15, though he said he’d allow TikTok to be sold to a U.S. company, such as its presumed suitor Microsoft, as long as the White House gets a piece of the action.

The logic behind the ban appears to be motivated by several factors, including the fact that teenage TikTok users pranked Trump by helping to inflate expectations of audience attendance at his rally in Tulsa, OK, in June.

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