“I will be willing if he wants to buy it,” President Trump replied about the possibility of billionaire Elon Musk buying TikTok. “I met the owners of TikTok, the big bosses. So what I’m thinking of telling someone is to buy it and give half back to the US,” Mr. Trump added, according to Reuters.
Billionaire Elon Musk spoke at the Capital One arena in Washington DC on January 20
When asked if he had installed TikTok on his phone, President Trump said he had not but might install it. “We won the youth vote. I think I won that area because of TikTok. So I hold a warm place in my heart for TikTok,” the president said. Sheet USA Today The post-voting survey results showed that former Vice President Kamala Harris won 54% of the votes of voters under 30 years old while Mr. Trump only won 43%.
Mr. Trump’s previous administration enacted a law passed by Congress, requiring parent company ByteDance to divest or TikTok would be banned in the US. The ban was issued due to concerns that China would exploit this application to spy on Americans or influence public opinion through data collection and content interference. TikTok has denied these allegations.
President Trump talked about raising taxes, Canada and Mexico announced they would defend themselves
The ban took effect on January 19, but on January 20, Mr. Trump signed an executive order postponing its implementation for another 75 days. As of the afternoon of January 21, US users can still use TikTok but cannot download it from the Apple and Android app stores.
Mr. Elon Musk once talked about the asymmetric business environment between the US and China, when TikTok was operating in the US while his social network X was banned in China.
“I have opposed the TikTok ban for a long time because it goes against freedom of speech. That means the current situation is unbalanced when TikTok is allowed to operate in the US but X is not allowed to operate. operating in China,” Mr. Musk said over the weekend.
Many other parties are said to be looking to buy TikTok, such as startup Perplexity AI or billionaire Kevin O’Leary of the US show Shark Tank.
