President Donald Trump is considering selling TikTok to Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Oracle Chairman Larry EllisonTrump had signed an executive order on Monday, January 20, 2025, to keep TikTok operating in the U.S. for 75 daysThe Chinese government has reportedly considered a plan that would involve Musk acquiring the TikTok operations owned by ByteDance
Henzodaily.ng journalist Adekunle Dada has over 7 years of experience covering metro, government policy, and international events
Washington DC, United States – President Donald Trump of the United States said he is open to the possibility of selling TikTok to Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison.
Trump stated this while speaking at a press briefing to announce a joint venture for investing in artificial intelligence infrastructure on Tuesday, January 21.
ByteDance, however, has not indicated whether it will sell TikTok.
Photo credit: @Naija_PR
Source: Twitter
Musk, who is also the owner of social media app X, was one of Trump’s top financial backers in the campaign while Ellison is a longtime Trump supporter, and Oracle is TikTok’s cloud infrastructure provider in the U.S.
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Musk is positioned to wield major influence in the Trump administration.
As reported by CNBC, while responding to a reporter‘s question on if he was open to “Elon buying TikTok,” he said:
“I would be if he wanted to buy it, yes,” Trump said in response. “I’d like Larry to buy it, too.”
TikTok is in a state of limbo in the U.S. after Trump signed an executive order to keep TikTok operating in the country for 75 days.
President Trump said that TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance would be “worthless” without a permit to operate in the U.S., but could be worth $1 trillion with one.
The US President said ByteDance would have “the ultimate partner” in the U.S. which would “make it very worthwhile for them in terms of the permits and everything else.”
“What I’m thinking about saying to somebody is, buy it and give half to the United States of America,” Trump said. “And we’ll give you the permit.'”
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ByteDance, however, has not indicated whether it will sell TikTok.
The Chinese government has reportedly considered a plan that would involve Musk acquiring the operations.
Henzodaily.ng recalls that millions of users in the United States (US) are no longer able to watch videos on TikTok as a federal ban on the popular app takes effect.
The newly-enacted US law prohibiting the use of TikTok came into effect on Saturday, January 18, 48 hours before the inauguration of Trump.
Henzodaily.ng reports that the ban followed months of legal battles and heightened scrutiny over TikTok’s Chinese ownership.
TikTok addresses report of selling company to Elon Musk
In a similar development, Henzodaily.ng reported that Chinese officials reportedly considered selling TikTok’s US operations to Elon Musk’s social media platform X.
This is in response to an American statute that mandates the company’s rapid divestiture from China.
TikTok however referred to the report of selling the US division of the video-sharing app to Musk as pure fiction.
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Source: Henzodaily.ng