Trump said there’s been ‘a lot of interest in TikTok’ but did not specify which other companies are interested in buying the Chinese-owned app.
President Donald Trump said on Monday that Microsoft is one of the companies interested in buying TikTok, as the video-sharing app faces a potential nationwide ban in the United States.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, the president was asked if Microsoft is in talks to acquire the Chinese-owned app, to which he replied, “I would say yes.”
Trump added that there has been “a lot of interest in TikTok” but did not offer details about other companies interested in purchasing it.
“I like bidding wars because you make your best deal. So if there’s a bidding war, that’s a good thing,” the president told reporters.
The Epoch Times has reached out to both TikTok and Microsoft for comment but did not hear back by publication time.
TikTok was briefly shut down in the United States on Jan. 19, just hours before a law signed by then-President Joe Biden took effect. The law required TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to divest its U.S. assets on national security grounds or face a nationwide ban.
The app returned online after Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20, the day of his inauguration, calling for a 75-day pause on the enforcement of the federal divest-or-ban law.
Trump said the pause would allow his 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.”
During his first term in 2020, Trump issued an executive order requiring TikTok’s China-based parent company to divest its U.S. assets. Microsoft became one of the potential buyers and entered talks, but the deal eventually fell through, with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella describing it as the “strangest thing” he had ever worked on. Trump’s divestment push ended by the time he left office in January 2021, and no potential suitor ended up acquiring the app.
Trump told reporters on Jan. 21 that he anticipates a deal where the United States would hold a 50 percent stake in TikTok. He said the United States “will make it very worthwhile for them [ByteDance] in terms of the permits and everything else.”
“So what I am thinking about saying to somebody is, ‘Buy it and give half to the United States of America, and we’ll give you the permit,’ and they’ll have a great partner,” Trump said.
The president has said that he would be open to billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison buying the app. Jimmy Donaldson, a prominent YouTuber known as MrBeast, said he had teamed up with “a bunch of billionaires” to acquire TikTok.
ByteDance has not yet indicated whether it will sell TikTok, while the Chinese foreign ministry has suggested that China’s ruling regime may not oppose such a deal.
TikTok has faced scrutiny amid concerns that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could potentially gain access to U.S. consumer data and the algorithm owned by ByteDance. Officials have pointed to Beijing’s counterespionage law, which requires all entities in China to legally hand over user data if the CCP authorities request it. ByteDance has repeatedly maintained that it will not share U.S. user data with the CCP.
Katabella Roberts and Reuters contributed to this report.