Trump flip-flops on TikTok ban, Biden plays both sides. Pick your presidential waffling.

Donald Trump's flip-flop on TikTok makes abundantly clear that every single thing is transactional for the former president.

And while Trump was actually against TikTok in 2020 before he was for it this month, President Joe Biden is trying to capitalize on that about-face with a game of two-sidesy.

The U.S. House passed legislation Wednesday in a 352-65 bipartisan vote to force ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, to sell the social media platform wildly popular with young American users or a face a national ban.

The argument: TikTok, like all social media platforms, tracks all kinds of sensitive personal data about users. And the Chinese government could demand that the company hand over all that information.

That was Trump's argument when, as president, he signed a 2020 executive order to block all U.S. transactions with TikTok to address what he called then "a national emergency."

Now Trump says keep TikTok. Why? He's got a new ax to grind with Facebook. And he thinks a TikTok ban would help the rival social media platform.

Why has Trump changed his mind on TikTok?

But ByteDance has clearly pierced the former president's inner circle, with former advisers now reportedly pushing him to pull back on TikTok. And Pennsylvania's richest man might have also played a role.

Jeff Yass, a founder of the suburban Philadelphia stock trading firm Susquehanna International who is estimated by Forbes to be worth $26.7 billion, holds a $15 billion stake in ByteDance, according to a Bloomberg valuation.

Politico reported two weeks ago that Trump told conservative Club for Growth in a speech that Yass had encouraged him to attend the event. Trump in that speech called Yass, who had previously been critical of the former president, "fantastic."

Trump doesn't cozy up to critics for no reason. His campaign coffers have been depleted by legal fees in his civil and criminal cases. And his allies just took over the Republican National Committee, which has been lackluster in fundraising of late. Having a super rich pal like Yass probably looks pretty lucrative right now.

Politico also reported Saturday that Kellyanne Conway, a former Trump campaign manager and White House adviser, was working for Club for Growth to talk up TikTok to Congress.

And The Washington Post on Tuesday reported that another former Trump aide, Tony Sayegh, now handles public affairs for Yass' trading firm and has been advocating in Trump's camp for TikTok.

ByteDance has also stepped up spending on lobbying against such a ban. The company reported spending $8.7 million last year to lobby legislators in the House and Senate. That's an increase of 77% in what the company reported for lobbying in 2022.

Did ByteDance get its money's worth?

The changing American sentiment on TikTok

A Pew Research Center survey of American adults released a year ago found that 50% supported a TikTok ban while 22% opposed that. People ages 18-29 showed the strongest opposition, at 46%. People who identified as conservative showed the strongest support, at 70%.

Banning TikTok? The House wants the US to ban TikTok. That's a mistake.

That didn't take long to change. Pew reported in December that overall support for a ban fell to 38%, a drop of 12 percentage points. In addition, 35% said they were unsure about a ban while 27% opposed it, an increase in 5 points.

Again, the 18- to 29-year-olds showed the least amount of support for the ban while conservatives showed the most support.

The survey conducted Sept. 25-Oct. 1 found opinions among Democratic participants "more mixed," which helped shift the overall approval rate in TikTok's favor.

Biden has to play both sides of the debate

Biden would probably love to win over conservative voters in what will now be a 2020 rematch with Trump. But he needs those young voters to stick with his coalition if he is going to win a second term in November.

To get there, Biden is willing to be for and against TikTok. His campaign joined TikTok last month to reach young voters. Then the president said Friday he would sign into law the legislation to force a sale if it passed Congress.

Why play both sides?

Biden on TikTok: I don't want my president to be a TikTok influencer. Biden is wasting time making jokes.

Young voters have been drifting from Biden for months. It doesn't help that a sitting president just had to launch a campaign commercial to address concerns that he's 81 years old and looking to stick around until 2028. Does he really want to be the guy who kills off TikTok?

And Trump and his Republican allies always try to paint Biden as a feeble defender of America against a looming Chinese threat. So Biden called the bluff there, likely anticipating the legislation would stall and never reach his desk.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, appears to be in zero rush to take up the TikTok ban legislation. And, just as Trump's attempt at an executive order got tied up in a legal challenge, ByteDance could try the same path through the courts to stymie this effort.

Biden has the better hand here. He can keep saying the Senate should support the ban while also hoping it goes nowhere.

Does Trump's new position on banning TikTok matter to Republican lawmakers?

But what about Trump. He had a legion of Republican legislators who have matched his anti-TikTok rhetoric for years. He just walked away from all that – didn't even bother to look over his shoulder at them.

Does it matter?

Steve Bannon, another former Trump campaign manager who served as a White House adviser, posted Saturday on social media that the former president's motivation for the TikTok reversal was "Simple: Yass coin."

So Bannon suggests that Trump flip-flopped in hopes of largesse from Yass.

Notably, there was no stampede of congressional Republicans to the waiting microphones post-vote Wednesday to put any distance between themselves and Trump.

There were 65 House votes against the TikTok ban Wednesday, 50 Democrats and 15 Republicans. They included some of the Trump-iest Republicans in the House – Matt Gaetz of Florida, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.

Still 197 House Republicans voted for the ban – in opposition to a (revised and reversed) position held by their party's presumptive nominee for president.

A loss for TikTok is now a loss for Trump. Unless, of course, he just completely changes his position again.

Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: TikTok ban is looming. Does Trump or Biden support it? Depends