U.S. President Donald Trump expressed openness on Tuesday to the idea of billionaire Elon Musk purchasing the popular social media app TikTok, following national security concerns about its Chinese ownership. Trump said he would support Musk’s acquisition of the platform, telling reporters, “I would be, if he wanted to buy it… buy it and give half to the United States of America.”
TikTok, which boasts 170 million U.S. users, was temporarily taken offline for users last week ahead of a law aimed at either forcing its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell its U.S. operations or face a ban. The law, citing security risks over Americans’ data misuse, came into effect on Sunday.
Bloomberg News had reported last week that Chinese officials were in early discussions about selling TikTok to Musk, though ByteDance denied the claims. Trump signed an executive order on Monday, delaying the law’s enforcement by 75 days.
TikTok remained unavailable for download on Apple and Android devices in the U.S. on Tuesday. The company insists that its ties to China have been overstated, noting that its data is stored on U.S. cloud servers managed by Oracle, and its content moderation is also handled within the country.
Musk, a vocal critic of a potential TikTok ban, argued it undermines free speech, while noting the imbalance between U.S. and Chinese business environments. Musk owns the social media platform X, which has been restricted in China.
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