By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-22 00:01:45 | Updated at 2025-01-22 04:27:39
4 hours ago
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would be supportive of the world’s richest man and his close aide, Elon Musk, buying TikTok “if he wanted to”.
Trump was asked if he would be open to the founder of Tesla buying the embattled short-video platform facing a nationwide ban in the US after the Supreme Court last week upheld a law requiring TikTok to sever ties with its Chinese parent ByteDance.
“If he wanted to,” he responded, adding: “I have the right to make a deal.”
Trump said he had met with the “big owners” of TikTok, describing the app as “worthless” without his approval.
“So what I’m thinking about saying to somebody is, buy it and give half to the United States of America, half, and we’ll give you the permit,” the president explained, calling his plan “reasonable”.
“And they’ll have something that’s actually more valuable because they have the ultimate partner and the United States will make it very worthwhile for them in terms of the permits and everything else,” he added.
