Trump administration asks the U.S. court to allow WeChat ban to move forward

Yahoo Finance's Tech Editor Dan Howley joins The First Trade with Alexis Christoforous and Brian Sozzi to discuss the latest developments in the Trump administration’s fight to ban Chinese platforms in the United States.

Video Transcript

BRIAN SOZZI: We're tracking shares of Facebook this morning after President Trump asked the US Justice Department to allow a ban of WeChat. Yahoo Finance Tech Editor Dan Howley joins us now. Dan, what's the latest here?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, essentially what we're looking at here is kind of this ongoing saga of the WeChat, TikTok issue. Right now, TikTok is kind of stuck in almost a purgatory. They're still trying to determine if they're going to be banned on Sunday or not. The Trump administration has to respond to a request from a judge as to whether or not they're going to hold up on implementing the ban or respond to an injunction request that TikTok had put in to put the ban on hold.

And then WeChat, kind of the same kind of holding pattern. This is going to be something that I don't think gets resolved for some time now. It appears as though originally the companies had a deal worked out, the Trump administration and China hawks apparently jumped in, and then China, seeing that, jumped in because neither country kind of wants to seem weak in the eyes of the other.

And so that's kind of where we are right now. It feels like these apps aren't necessarily going to get any kind of firm answer anytime soon at least-- at least before the weekend or after the weekend. Maybe some time next week, but everything still seems to be very much in flux at this point.