US President Donald Trump said he was open to the idea of tech billionaire Elon Musk buying TikTok.
“I would be open to it, if he (Musk) wanted to buy,” Trump told reporters in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on the first full day of his second term, when asked if he was open to Musk buying the app.
Trump said he had met with TikTok’s owners.
“What I’m thinking of telling someone is to buy it (TikTok) and give half to the United States of America. Half, and we’ll give you a license. And they’ll have a great partner, the United States,” he said.
“So what I’m saying is, the United States gives you the license and the United States should get half. It makes sense,” he added.
Trump signed an executive order on Monday in an attempt to extend the ban on the app for 75 days.
The order Trump signed cites a resolution protecting national security, trying to save a platform used by 170 million Americans.
“I think the United States should have the right to take half of TikTok,” he told reporters as he signed the executive orders after returning to the Oval Office. He said TikTok could be worth a trillion dollars.
“Basically with TikTok, I have the right to sell it or shut it down, and we’ll decide and we’ll probably have to get approval from China as well,” he said.
Trump also said his administration would work on “a joint venture” between the United States and other companies he did not disclose.
“I think you have a lot of people who would be interested in TikTok, with the United States as a partner,” he added.
On Friday, the US Supreme Court upheld a law that would ban TikTok unless its China-based parent company, ByteDance, accepts more investment in the app.
After being down earlier on Sunday, TikTok announced it was in the process of restoring services to its US users following assurances from Trump.
