Donald Trump has attempted to negotiate a potential TikTok sale during a live press conference.
The US president tried to negotiate the sale of the video app with American businessman Larry Ellison during the White House briefing, which was meant to be about about a $500billion investment in AI infrastructure but saw him grilled on a range of topics.
The subject of TikTok was raised, after he app was taken offline temporarily shortly before a law that said it must be sold by its Chinese owner ByteDance, or be banned, took effect on Sunday.
Mr Trump said he is open to billionaire Elon Musk buying TikTok if the Tesla boss wanted to do so.
He added: “I’d like Larry [Ellison] to buy it too.
“I have the right to make a deal, the deal I’m thinking about, Larry let’s negotiate in front of the media.
“The deal I think is this. I’ve met with the owners of TikTok, the big owners, it’s worthless if it doesn’t get a permit... with a permit it’s worth like a trillion dollars.
“What I’m thinking of saying to someone is buy it and give half to the US, half, and we’ll give you a permit... the US will be the ultimate partner and the US will make it very worthwhile for them.”
Mr Ellison, who was at the briefing, said he thought the proposal “sounds like a good deal to me”.
Bloomberg News reported last week that Chinese officials were in preliminary talks about a potential option to sell TikTok’s operations in the US to Mr 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 US 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.
“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. “So, what I am thinking about saying to somebody is ‘buy it and give half to the United States of America.’”
Free speech advocates have opposed TikTok’s ban under a law passed by the US Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden.
The company says US 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 US
Mr 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 US 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,” Mr Musk, who owns social media platform X, said over the weekend.
