President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday ordering the departments of Treasury and Commerce to create a sovereign wealth fund, which is a federally owned investment entity that takes stakes in various financial assets
“We’re going to stand this thing up within the next 12 months,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. “We’re going to monetize the asset side of the U.S. balance sheet for the American people.”
“I think it’s about time that this country had a sovereign wealth fund,” Trump said. “I think in a short period of time, we’d have one of the biggest funds.”
Trump previously said he could finance the endeavor with “tariffs and other intelligent things” in a speech before the New York Economic Club last September. Although sovereign wealth funds usually run in economies with a surplus, Trump could likely divert some of his tariff revenue to the budget.
“We will build extraordinary national development projects and everything from highways to airports and to transportation infrastructure,” Trump said.
Trump also floated the possibility that he could use the sovereign wealth fund to buy the popular yet controversial social media platform TikTok.
“We’re going to be doing something perhaps with TikTok,” he said Monday. “If we make the right deal, we’ll do it; otherwise we won’t.”
President Joe Biden signed a law in April 2024 that forced TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to divest by Jan. 19 or be banned.
The ban sparked mixed reactions on both sides, with some calling it a victory against Chinese influence and others calling it an attack on free speech.
Trump postponed the ban by 75 days on his first day in office, giving his administration time to investigate the app.
TikTok has sparked some concern in the U.S. due to the idea that foreign governments could use the Chinese-owned app to spy on its users.
If Trump used his sovereign wealth fund to purchase TikTok, he could accomplish several goals at once.
First, he could keep outside influence away from the platform, giving users more peace of mind.
A purchase of the platform would also give Trump justification to keep the app legal, as it would be American-owned.
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In addition, Trump could maintain the free-speech aspect of the platform without any of the negative consequences of giving foreign governments access to people’s data.
Purchasing TikTok should not be Trump’s first priority with his sovereign wealth fund. If he is able to acquire the platform, however, he would have the opportunity to solve the problem of maintaining free speech while minimizing foreign interference.