American Enterprise Institute Admits Mistake in Listing TikTok as Gala Sponsor, Refunds Seat Purchases

The American Enterprise Institute admitted Tuesday to making a mistake in listing TikTok as a sponsor at its annual gala held in Washington, D.C., last night.

AEI president Robert Doar addressed the controversy in a brief blog post apologizing for the mishap and reasserting the think tank’s commitment to countering the Chinese Communist Party’s influence operations.

“We made a mistake. The American Enterprise Institute listed TikTok as a sponsor of our Annual Dinner, held yesterday evening. While TikTok did purchase two seats at the 1,000+-person dinner, listing them as a sponsor created the impression that they are a part of the AEI community. They are not,” Doar wrote.

“In order to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, this morning AEI refunded TikTok the $1,500 cost of their two seats.”

Multiple attendees of AEI’s gala told NR the TikTok sponsorship was a hot topic at the event. AEI’s China experts have consistently criticized the CCP’s attempt to use TikTok as a global influence and surveillance tool. A Rutgers University study from December 2023 found that China used TikTok as a propaganda tool to suppress topics the Chinese government finds inconvenient and to amplify pro-CCP narratives.

AEI listing TikTok as a gala sponsor drew additional scrutiny when Hudson Institute senior fellow Michael Sobolik shared a critical post about it on social media.

“Whoa. Didn’t expect to see Chinese Communist Party-controlled TikTok as an official @AEI partner for its annual gala,” said Sobolik, a China hawk and longtime critic of TikTok’s Chinese ownership.

TikTok was one of several companies and foundations listed as a sponsor at AEI’s annual Irving Kristol Award gala. This year’s winner was renowned historian Gordon Wood, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning scholarship on the American Revolution.

Last year, then-President Joe Biden signed bipartisan legislation requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the platform or have it banned from operating in the U.S. beginning in January 2025. TikTok fought the legislation with a vigorous lobbying campaign that rankled congressional lawmakers when teenage users flooded Capitol Hill offices with hysterical phone calls.

President Trump repeatedly delayed implementation of the TikTok legislation even after the Supreme Court upheld it. Trump opposed the legislation to ban TikTok after he was an early proponent of doing so during his first term.

Trump announced a deal in September for TikTok to sell its U.S. operations to a group of American investors in order to comply with the law. The administration has released few details about the agreement in the weeks following Trump’s executive order approving the TikTok agreement.

TikTok’s estimated daily user base exceeds 150 million Americans. The short-form video platform is especially popular with Millennials and Generation Z.