U.S. President Donald Trump said he was open to either billionaire Elon Musk or Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison buying social media app TikTok.
“I have a right to make a deal,” Trump said at the White House Tuesday, at an event at which he announced a $500 billion private partnership investment in artificial intelligence, with Ellison standing at his side.
“I’m thinking about saying to somebody, ‘Buy it and give half to the United States of American, and we’ll give you the permit, and they’ll have a great partner,” Trump said, Bloomberg reports.
WHY IT'S IMPORTANT
The short video app used by 170 million Americans was taken offline temporarily for users shortly before a law that said it must be sold by its Chinese owner ByteDance on national security grounds, or be banned, took effect on Sunday.
According to reports last week, Chinese officials were in preliminary talks about a potential option to sell TikTok's operations in the United States to Musk, though the company has denied that.
Trump on Monday signed an executive order seeking to delay by 75 days the enforcement of the law that was put in place after U.S. officials warned that under Chinese parent company ByteDance, there was a risk of Americans' data being misused.
TikTok remained unavailable to download on Apple and Android devices in the United States on Tuesday afternoon.
KEY QUOTES
"I would be, if he wanted to buy it," Trump told reporters on Tuesday when asked if he was open to Musk buying the platform.
"I have met with owners of TikTok, the big owners," Trump added.
"You have an asset value that has no value or has a $ trillion value," Trump said. "It all depends whether or not the United States gives the permit."
CONTEXT
Free speech advocates have opposed TikTok's ban under a law passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden.
The company says U.S. officials misstated its ties to China, arguing its content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the United States on cloud servers operated by Oracle, while content moderation decisions that affect American users are also made in the U.S.
Musk, who spent more than $250 million to help Trump win November's presidential election, has said there was an "unbalanced" business environment between the U.S. and China.
"I have been against a TikTok ban for a long time, because it goes against freedom of speech. That said, the current situation where TikTok is allowed to operate in America, but X is not allowed to operate in China is unbalanced," Musk, who owns social media platform X, said over the weekend.