President Donald Trump said he is open to Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison purchasing TikTok.
“Are you open to Elon buying TikTok?” a reporter asked Trump.
“I would be if he wanted to buy it,” Trump responded. “I’d like Larry to buy it too. I have the right to make a deal.”
“So the deal I’m thinking about, Larry, let’s negotiate in front of the media. The deal I’m thinking is this, and I have met with owners of TikTok, the big owners, it’s worthless if it doesn’t get a permit.”
“With a permit, it’s worth like a trillion dollars. So what I’m thinking about saying to somebody is, ‘Buy it and give half to the United States of America, half, and we’ll give you the permit.’ And they’ll have a great partner – the United States.”
He stated that ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, would “have something that’s actually more valuable because they have the ultimate partner.” Trump noted that the United States “would make it very worthwhile for them.”
Trump signed an executive order that describes his responsibility to “consult with my advisors, including the heads of relevant departments and agencies on the national security concerns posed by TikTok, and to pursue a resolution that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans.”
“Accordingly, I am instructing the Attorney General not to take any action to enforce the Act for a period of 75 days from today to allow my Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform used by millions of Americans,” the order says.