Name: Trump Wants U.S. Government To Get ‘A Lot Of Money’ For Allowing Microsoft-TikTok Deal
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Trump Wants U.S. Government To Get ‘A Lot Of Money’ For Allowing Microsoft-TikTok Deal

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BETAThis is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by&nbsp;Aug 3, 2020,New!Got it!President Donald Trump told reporters Monday that he’ll follow through with plans to ban TikTok in the U.S. if Microsoft doesn’t clinch a deal to buy a portion of the social media platform by September 15—and claimed that any acquisition will have to involve paying a “significant amount of money” to the federal government for allowing the deal to take place.Trump announced Friday his intention to ban TikTok in the U.S. amid concerns over the video-sharing platform’s ownership by a Chinese company as reports surfaced that Microsoft was exploring buying Tok Tok’s operations in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with the Wall Street Journal that Trump opposed the Microsoft deal.Microsoft then said in a Sunday night that it was moving forward with negotiations after speaking with Trump, signaling that Trump had dropped his previous criticisms of the potential acquisition.Trump Monday that he “[doesn’t] mind” if Microsoft—or another “big” and “very American company”—buys TikTok, but said he would shut down the app “around September 15” if a deal does not go through.The president said he wants Microsoft to purchase TikTok in its entirety, rather than a stake in the company.Trump claimed that “a very substantial portion” of the money Microsoft pays for TikTok “is gonna have to come into the Treasury of the United States, because we’re making it possible for this deal to happen.”Trump likened the Treasury’s supposed claim to the TikTok deal to a landlord-tenant relationship, but did not offer any details on what the government’s proposed cut of the TikTok deal would look like and whether it would take the form of taxation or a direct payment.TikTok is “a great asset, but it’s not a great asset in the United States if they don’t have the approval of the United States,” Trump said Monday. “So it’ll close down on September 15, unless Microsoft or somebody else is able to buy it, and work out a deal, an appropriate deal so that the Treasury…gets a lot of money.”$50 Billion: TikTok’s current , as projected in July by ByteDance investors who were considering a takeover of the company.Trump’s proposed TikTok ban was the culmination of mounting political scrutiny into TikTok and how it handles user data, and the app is currently under investigation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. TikTok has maintained that its user data is secure, and the company has been taking steps to the ongoing privacy concerns, including by announcing a new Transparency and Accountability Center in Los Angeles that will allow experts to view the company’s policies and code in real time. In a , ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming said that the company disagrees with the push to sell off TikTok and “has been working around the clock and overtime in the past few weeks” to address the ongoing criticism.If Trump actually does take action against TikTok on September 15, the unprecedented move could , including using CFIUS to force a restructuring of TikTok that separates it further from China or using the Commerce Department’s “entity list” to force Apple and Google to remove the app from their app stores. Should Trump actually ban TikTok, however, aides have the president that he’s likely to face legal challenges—and blowback from young voters who use the app.(Forbes)(Forbes).&nbsp;.&nbsp;

BETAThis is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by&nbsp;Aug 3, 2020,New!Got it!President Donald Trump told reporters Monday that he’ll follow through with plans to ban TikTok in the U.S. if Microsoft doesn’t clinch a deal to buy a portion of the social media platform by September 15—and claimed that any acquisition will have to involve paying a “significant amount of money” to the federal government for allowing the deal to take place.Trump announced Friday his intention to ban TikTok in the U.S. amid concerns over the video-sharing platform’s ownership by a Chinese company as reports...

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Trump Wants U.S. Government To Get ‘A Lot Of Money’ For Allowing Microsoft-TikTok Deal

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