Elon Musk To Buy TikTok? What Donald Trump Said After Pausing US TikTok Ban

Washington: Donald Trump cleared the air around billionaire Elon Musk buying the China-based social media app TikTok on Tuesday, saying he was open to the Tesla owner's acquisition if he wished.  

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump said, "I would be, if he wanted to buy it."  

"I have met with the big owners of TikTok," Trump added. "What I am thinking about saying to somebody is, 'buy it and give half to the United States of America.'"  

The US Supreme Court recently imposed a permanent ban on TikTok due to security and privacy concerns. The app, which has over 170 million American users, was directed to either sell its US operations to an American company or face a ban effective from January 19.  

TikTok Denies Musk Talks; Trump Extends Deadline  

Bloomberg News reported last week that Chinese officials were in initial talks over possibly selling TikTok's US operations to Musk. However, TikTok denied the claim, dismissing it as baseless.  

On Monday, Trump signed an executive order delaying the enforcement of the law by 75 days. This move followed warnings from U.S. officials that ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company, could misuse American users' data, raising national security concerns.

The US Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the federal law that banned TikTok unless ByteDance divested itself of its U.S. holdings. In issuing the decision, justices rejected Trump's request to wait until his administration could pursue a “political resolution” to the issue.

TikTok, ByteDance and some of the devoted users who rely on the platform argued the statute violated the First Amendment. The Biden administration sought to show ByteDance’s ownership and control of TikTok posed an unacceptable national security threat.

TikTok asked the Biden administration late for a “definitive statement” that would assure Google, Apple and other companies they would not face fines if they continued making its service available nationwide. Otherwise, TikTok said it “will be forced to go dark” on Sunday.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called TikTok's demand “a stunt.”

“We see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office,” Jean-Pierre said Saturday. TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent on Saturday.

(With Inputs from AP)