President Trump said he is open to Elon Musk buying TikTok, just a day after he signed an order to delay the federal ban on the social media app.
“I would be [open to the proposal] if he wanted to buy it,” Mr. Trump told reporters.
“I met with owners of TikTok, the big owners, it’s worthless if it doesn’t get a permit [in the U.S.],” he said. “With a permit it’s worth like a trillion dollars.”
“So, what I’m thinking saying to somebody is buy it and give half to the United States of America, half and we’ll give you the permit and they’ll have a great partner, the United States,” he said.
Mr. Musk, a billionaire ally of the president, already owns the social media platform X.
Mr. Trump, who was making an announcement about a multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence deal with private tech companies, also joked that Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle and one of the three involved with the AI deal, should buy TikTok.
“Let’s negotiate in front of the media, Larry,” he said.
In the Truth Social post, Mr. Trump proposed a “50% ownership position in a joint venture.”
“By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay up. Without U.S. approval, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars — maybe trillions.”
The TikTok ban law was passed in Congress in a bipartisan move in April and was quickly signed by then-President Biden. TikTok owners have sued and tried arguing that the ban violates the First Amendment, but the Supreme Court upheld the statute last week.
Mr. Trump signed the order Monday, delaying the enforcement for 75 days.
He said at a rally Monday that he changed his mind about the Chinese-owned app because it helped him win the youth vote in November’s election.
“And we went on TikTok and Republicans have never won the young vote, the youth vote, they win a lot of votes but they’ve never won the youth vote — we won the youth vote by 36 points,” he said. “So, I like TikTok.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.