Trump says he’s open to Elon Musk buying TikTok ‘if he wants to’
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Chinese officials want acquisitions to be decided by companies ‘in accordance with market principles’. President Donald Trump has said he’s open to the possibility of either Tesla boss and “first buddy” Elon Musk or Oracle chief Larry Ellison buying TikTok.
The Supreme Court ruled last week in favour of a law blocking TikTok for US consumers after former president Joe Biden signed a legislation in April requiring its US operations either be sold or face a ban. Biden administration officials had raised concerns that Americans’ personal data could be stolen and misused by the Chinese government if TikTok’s US operations remained under Chinese parent company ByteDance.
However, as one of his first moves as president, Mr Trump signed an executive order delaying the enforcement of the ban on the short video hosting platform by 75 days. “I have met with owners of TikTok, the big owners. So, what I am thinking about saying to somebody is ‘buy it and give half to the United States of America,” Mr Trump told reporters at a press briefing on Tuesday.
When asked by a reporter if he was open to Mr Musk buying the platform, the president said: “I would be, if he wanted to buy it.”. “I’d like Larry to buy it, too,” he said, referring to the Oracle chief, according to CNN. Despite the 75-day hold on the ban, companies delivering TikTok’s services in the US such as Apple and Google appear to be taking a cautious approach, with neither of their app stores offering any other ByteDance-affiliated apps on their digital marketplaces.
