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Scottish Sun
36 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
Trump says he has group of ‘very wealthy people' lined up to buy TikTok after pushing back ban of social media app
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) DONALD Trump said he has a group of "very wealthy people" lined up to buy TikTok. The President has repeatedly delayed a ban blocking the app to allow more time for negotiations with the Chinese owners - who have consistently refused to sell. 4 Donald Trump said he has potential buyers of TikTok waiting in the wings Credit: AFP 4 TikTok was temporarily disabled on US devices in January Credit: Getty 4 TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has argued the sale to American owners is not necessary Credit: AFP Trump has fought to force TikTok's owners to sell to an American party since his first term. A bill signed last year makes it illegal to operate under the current Chinese owners, but the ban has been delayed three times and the company has always refused to sell. However, on Sunday, Trump told Fox News a "group of very wealthy people" wanted to purchase the app from ByteDance. He said: 'I think I will need China['s] approval, and I think President Xi will probably do it." Without revealing any details, he added: 'I'll tell you in about two weeks.' The closest to Trump has come to barring American users from TikTok was at the time of his inauguration in January this year. A ban took effect on January 19, and TikTok shut itself down an hour before that, telling users "you can't use TikTok for now" due to a "law banning TikTok". But around 12 hours later it came back online after conversations between the US and China behind the scenes - and was available for download again three weeks later. Since then, Trump has delayed the ban three times - twice for 75 days and most recently by 90 days on June 17. The eventual ban or sale is required by a "foreign adversary" bill signed in March 2024. ByteDance challenged the Act, but it was upheld by the Supreme Court in January. Trump rips critics & insists 'bombs went through like butter' at Iran sites It's not clear how much TikTok would sell for, with valuations ranging from $30billion to $300billion. Rumoured new American owners have included major tech companies like Microsoft and Oracle. The wildly popular YouTuber Mr Beast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, said in January he would submit an official offer for TikTok through and investment group led by Jesse Tinsley. Steve Mnuchin, Trump's treasury secretary during his first term in office, also floated the idea of purchasing the app with a group of billionaire investors when the ban was first passed. Amazon reportedly made a last-minute bid to purchase TikTok three days before the second recent extension in April. The bill banning continued Chinese ownership of TikTok cites concerns about national security risks. ByteDance was initially given nine months to sell-up - and that expired in January. However, the company has repeatedly insisted it will not give-up the app. It said in April: "ByteDance doesn't have any plans to sell TikTok." Reports circulated that it was considering a sale of the app without the key algorithm, but these were denied. The owners insisted: "Foreign media reports of ByteDance selling TikTok are not true."
The Sun
37 minutes ago
- The Sun
Trump says he has group of ‘very wealthy people' lined up to buy TikTok after pushing back ban of social media app
DONALD Trump said he has a group of "very wealthy people" lined up to buy TikTok. The President has repeatedly delayed a ban blocking the app to allow more time for negotiations with the Chinese owners - who have consistently refused to sell. 4 4 4 Trump has fought to force TikTok's owners to sell to an American party since his first term. A bill signed last year makes it illegal to operate under the current Chinese owners, but the ban has been delayed three times and the company has always refused to sell. However, on Sunday, Trump told Fox News a "group of very wealthy people" wanted to purchase the app from ByteDance. He said: 'I think I will need China['s] approval, and I think President Xi will probably do it." Without revealing any details, he added: 'I'll tell you in about two weeks.' The closest to Trump has come to barring American users from TikTok was at the time of his inauguration in January this year. A ban took effect on January 19, and TikTok shut itself down an hour before that, telling users "you can't use TikTok for now" due to a "law banning TikTok". But around 12 hours later it came back online after conversations between the US and China behind the scenes - and was available for download again three weeks later. Since then, Trump has delayed the ban three times - twice for 75 days and most recently by 90 days on June 17. The eventual ban or sale is required by a "foreign adversary" bill signed in March 2024. ByteDance challenged the Act, but it was upheld by the Supreme Court in January. It's not clear how much TikTok would sell for, with valuations ranging from $30billion to $300billion. Rumoured new American owners have included major tech companies like Microsoft and Oracle. The wildly popular YouTuber Mr Beast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, said in January he would submit an official offer for TikTok through and investment group led by Jesse Tinsley. Steve Mnuchin, Trump's treasury secretary during his first term in office, also floated the idea of purchasing the app with a group of billionaire investors when the ban was first passed. Amazon reportedly made a last-minute bid to purchase TikTok three days before the second recent extension in April. The bill banning continued Chinese ownership of TikTok cites concerns about national security risks. ByteDance was initially given nine months to sell-up - and that expired in January. However, the company has repeatedly insisted it will not give-up the app. It said in April: "ByteDance doesn't have any plans to sell TikTok." Reports circulated that it was considering a sale of the app without the key algorithm, but these were denied. The owners insisted: "Foreign media reports of ByteDance selling TikTok are not true." 4
Sky News
38 minutes ago
- Sky News
Donald Trump says 'very wealthy group' has agreed to buy TikTok in the US
Donald Trump has said the US government has found a buyer for TikTok that he will reveal "in about two weeks". The president told Fox News "it's a group of very wealthy people", adding: "I think I'll probably need China approval, I think President Xi will probably do it." TikTok was ordered last year to find a new owner for its US operation - or face a ban - after politicians said they feared sensitive data about Americans could be passed to the Chinese government. The video app's owner, Bytedance, has repeatedly denied such claims. It originally had a deadline of 19 January to find a buyer - and many users were shocked when it "went dark" for a number of hours when that date came round, before later being restored. However, President Trump has now extended the deadline several times. The last extension was on 19 June, when the president signed another executive order pushing it back to 17 September. Mr Trump's latest comments suggest multiple people coming together to take control of the app in the US. Among those rumoured to be potential buyers include YouTube superstar Mr Beast, US search engine startup Perplexity AI, and Kevin O'Leary - an investor from Shark Tank (the US version of Dragons' Den). Bytedance said in April that it was still talking to the US government, but there were "differences on many key issues". It's believed the Chinese government will have to approve any agreement. President Trump's interview with Fox News also touched on the upcoming end of the pause in US tariffs on imported goods. On April 9, he granted a 90-day reprieve for countries threatened with a tariff of more than 10% in order to give them time to negotiate. Deals have already been struck with some countries, including the UK. The president said he didn't think he would need to push back the 9 July deadline and that letters would be sent out imminently stating what tariff each country would face. "We'll look at the deficit we have - or whatever it is with the country; we'll look at how the country treats us - are they good, are they not so good. Some countries, we don't care - we'll just send a high number out," he said. "But we're going to be sending letters out starting pretty soon. We don't have to meet, we have all the numbers." The president announced the tariffs in April, arguing they were correcting an unfair trade relationship and would return lost prosperity to US industries such as car-making.
