President Donald Trump says the clock is ticking for Beijing-based ByteDance to strike a deal to sell TikTok to a U.S. company or lose its ability to operate in the country.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Trump addressed the fate of TikTok and stated that if a U.S. company is unable to strike a deal to buy the app, it would no longer be able to operate in the U.S.
“I don’t mind if whether its Microsoft or somebody else, a big company, a secure company, very American company buy it,” Trump said as he encouraged companies to seek a total acquisition of the company to have full control of the company because the brand is “hot.”
He said that he signaled that companies could try to buy the company. However, he added, “I set a date of around September 15, at which point it’s going to be out of business in the United States.”
Trump said that if a U.S. based company buys TikTok, it could continue to operate in the country. Additionally, he suggested that ByteDance, the company that currently owns TikTok, would have to hand over some of the proceeds from the sale to the Department of the Treasury to “reimburse” the U.S.
“I did say that if you buy it, whatever the price is that goes to whoever owns it, because I guess it’s China essentially, but more than anything else, I said a very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the Treasury of the United States. Because we’re making it possible for this deal to happen. Right now, they don’t have any rights unless we give it to them. So, if we’re going to give them the rights, then it has to come into this country.”
Watch the video below:
President Trump on TikTok @tiktok_us: "It'll close down on September 15th unless Microsoft or somebody else is able to buy it." pic.twitter.com/GVn1yZeJ2W
— CSPAN (@cspan) August 3, 2020
Trump hailed the app as a “great asset” and predicted that a deal would be made to buy TikTok.
But he said, “It’s not a great asset in the United States unless they have the approval of the United States. So it will close down on September 15 unless Microsoft or somebody else is able to buy it and work out a deal and appropriate deal so that the Treasury — really the Treasury I guess you would say of the United States — gets a lot of money.”
Trump’s comments come a day after Microsoft announced that it was willing to discussions to “explore” a purchase of TikTok before Trump’s September 15 deadline.
The move comes days after Trump said he was prepared to ban the over security and privacy concerns, as IJR reported.
And on Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Trump would take action in the “coming days” to address security concerns related to a “broad array” of Chinese software companies. Â
