Donald Trump said he would support Elon Musk if he wants to buy TikTok
The Republican president also announced that he would like American companies to have a 50% stake in the platform owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.
Donald Trump has expressed his support for Elon Musk to buy TikTok, if the head of X, SpaceX and Tesla wants to acquire the social network from the Chinese company ByteDance, banned in the United States since Sunday.
Asked if he would be open to Musk moving forward with such a purchase, Trump replied: “I would be if he wanted to buy it.”
He then said that he would like Larry Ellison, from Oracle, “to buy it too,” and invited him to make a deal in front of the press.
The American president, who on Monday signed an executive order to suspend the ban for 75 days, also suggested from the White House that the entity that buys TikTok would have to “give half to the United States” in exchange for a “license.”
“I have the right to make a deal. I met with the owners of TikTok and the deal I am thinking of is the following: it is worth nothing if it does not have a permit, with a permit it is worth a billion dollars. "I'm thinking of telling someone to buy it, give half of it to the United States, and we'll give them permission, and they'll have a great partner in the United States," Trump said.
Shortly after his inauguration, Trump signed an executive order halting the ban on TikTok in the United States for 75 days.
On Sunday, the Republican had announced that he would like American companies to have a 50% stake in the platform owned by the Chinese company ByteDance to keep it “in good hands.”
In his first term (2017-2021), the Republican tried to ban the social network, but this time he promised during his campaign that he would “save TikTok,” a service that has “a place in his heart” because of the supposed role played by the application in attracting the youth vote.
Beijing has a “golden share” in ByteDance that gives it the right to veto any decision, gaining influence over the company's strategy and operations. TikTok argues that this situation only affects ByteDance in China but not its business abroad.
In any case, since Beijing's export control regulations prohibit Chinese companies from selling their software algorithms, a potential sale of TikTok would need to have the explicit approval of the Chinese regime, giving it an even more prominent say in the matter.
Like Western services such as Facebook, X, Google or Instagram, TikTok is blocked in the Asian giant, where Bytedance operates an app called Douyin, aimed at the Chinese market and completely independent of TikTok.
On Saturday, TikTok suspended its operations in the United States, hours before the law came into force that forced the platform to disassociate itself from its parent company, the Chinese ByteDance, or face permanent closure.
The application was temporarily removed from the Apple and Google stores, in compliance with the law, which also prohibits companies such as Oracle and Amazon Web Services from continuing to collaborate with TikTok.
