Trump Says US Might Buy TikTok With Sovereign Wealth Fund
Donald Trump has created a U.S. sovereign wealth fund via an executive order and suggested it could be used to purchase TikTok.
The president directed new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick to come up with a plan for the fund within 90 days. While signing the order yesterday, Trump listed TikTok as the type of asset that could be purchased with the fund.
“We’re going to be doing something perhaps with TikTok, perhaps not,” Trump says. “If we make the right deal we’ll do it, otherwise we won’t. But I have the right to do that. And we might put that in the sovereign wealth fund, whatever we make, or if we do a partnership with very wealthy people. A lot of options. But we could put that as an example in the fund.”
Mashable notes that if the new sovereign wealth fund is to purchase TikTok then it will have to get a move on since Trump’s executive order delaying TikTok’s ban lasts for 75 days meaning the sale might have to be completed before April 5. Bessent says he hopes the fund will be operational within a year which is well past the deadline.
Trump previously revealed that Microsoft is in talks with TikTok to buy the app while others reports have suggested TikTok could be sold to the president’s ‘First Buddy’ Elon Musk. ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, has indicated it is not possible to sell the U.S. arm of TikTok calling it “technologically, commercially, and legally” unfeasible.
However, exactly how much agency ByteDance has over its own app remains a mystery as it is widely believed that the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has a strong say in any final decisions.
Meanwhile, TikTok continues to fight the ban on its app, which continues to operate despite being no longer available in major app stores. On Thursday, the company filed a petition to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals asking for a review of the constitutionality of the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), which was signed into law by President Joe Biden in April.
“Never before has Congress silenced so much speech in a single act,” TikTok’s filing says, per Mashable. “The Act is unconstitutional and must be enjoined.”
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.