U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would be open to tech billionaire Elon Musk, already the owner of social media platform X, buying Chinese-owned app TikTok.
"I would be, if he wanted to buy," Trump told reporters in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on the first full day of his second term in office when asked whether he is open to Musk buying the short-video sharing app.
"I'd like Larry to buy it too," he added, in an apparent reference to Larry Ellison, chairperson of Oracle.
TikTok is facing a shutdown because a U.S. law ordered the company to divest from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, or be banned in the U.S.
Trump said he met with the owners of TikTok. In one of his first acts in office, he already ordered a pause on enforcing the law that should have seen TikTok effectively made illegal in the country on Sunday, a day before he took office for a second term.
The executive order directed his attorney general to delay the implementation of the law for 75 days. According to the order, he is pursuing a resolution that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans.
"What I'm thinking about saying to somebody is buy it and give half to the U.S. of America. Half, and we'll give you the permit. And they'll have a great partner, the U.S.," he said.
"So what I'm saying is, let the U.S. give the permit and the U.S. should get half. Sounds reasonable," he added.
The TikTok ban passed due to concerns that the Chinese government could exploit the app to spy on Americans or covertly influence U.S. public opinion through data collection and content manipulation. Trump has now floated the idea of a 50-50 partnership between the U.S. and its Chinese owner ByteDance, though he did not provide details on how exactly this could be achieved.
"I think the U.S. should be entitled to get half of TikTok," he told reporters while signing executive orders after returning to the Oval Office. He said TikTok could be worth a trillion dollars.
"Essentially, with TikTok, I have the right to sell it or close it, and we'll make that determination, and we may have to get approval from China too. I'm not sure, but I'm sure they'll approve it," he said.
He also said his administration will work on "a joint venture" between the U.S. and undisclosed other entities.
"I think you have a lot of people that would be interested in TikTok with the U.S. as a partner," he added.
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law that would ban TikTok unless its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, divests from the app.
After going offline earlier Sunday, TikTok announced that it was in the process of restoring services to its U.S. users following assurances from Trump.
