President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he is open to billionaire Elon Musk buying the social media app TikTok — if the Tesla CEO wants to do so.
“I will do it if he wants to buy it,” Trump told reporters.
Trump signed an executive order on Monday giving the Chinese-owned app a 75-day reprieve from the sell-or-ban law that took effect Sunday.
Trump said: “I met with the owners of Tiktok, the big owners, it is worthless if you do not get a permit.” “It's worth a trillion dollars. “So what I think about saying to someone is, 'Buy it and give half of it to the United States of America, we'll give you the permit, and they'll have a great partner.'
Musk's name has previously been floated by officials as a potential buyer due to the pole's close ties with China.
Trump made the comments while announcing a $500 billion AI infrastructure project involving Oracle, Softbank and OpenAI, led by Musk opponent Sam Altman.
The president also said he would be open to the app being bought by Larry Ellison, the billionaire co-founder of Oracle.
