Trump Says He Would Be Open To His Pal Elon Musk Owning TikTok

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would be open to the possibility of having his billionaire ally Elon Musk buy the US operations of TikTok in his latest comments on the popular social media platform.

“I would be if he wanted to buy it, yeah,” Trump said.

Musk, who has reportedly been considered a potential buyer for the app by the Chinese government, already owns another social media platform, X, formerly known as Twitter.

Trump’s comments came as reporters gathered in the Roosevelt Room at the White House for a planned announcement on infrastructure. The president introduced a $500 million investment in artificial intelligence in partnership with OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank, alongside the three companies’ senior executives.

Trump then opened the floor to questions and took the opportunity to weigh into the fate of TikTok in the US.

Apart from Musk, Trump said he would also welcome the possibility of having TikTok land in the hands of Oracle founder and chief technology officer Larry Ellison, who was in the room.

“I’d like Larry to buy it too,” Trump said, looking at Ellison. “I have the right to make a deal.”

Trump teased Ellison, urging him to start negotiating a potential bid for the platform before the reporters gathered in the room.

TikTok already has a deal with Oracle to store its US users’ data.

Trump added that he’s met with the owners of TikTok, noting that the company, which has a user base of 170 million Americans, would be “worthless” if it lost access to the US market. 

“It’s worthless if it doesn’t get a permit,” he said. “With a permit, it’s worth like a trillion dollars.”

“What I’m thinking about saying to somebody is ‘buy it and give half to the United States of America, half and we’ll give you the permit,’” he continued.

After the US Supreme Court upheld a law signed by former President Joe Biden in April mandating that the platform divest its Chinese ownership or face the prospect of being removed from app stores in the US on January 19, TikTok late Saturday said it was temporarily suspending service for US users.

The platform restored service several hours later, once Trump said he would sign an executive order, giving the company more time to comply with the law. Trump followed through on his pledge on Monday.

While China had previously opposed the prospect of a forced TikTok sale, the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday said it believes the operation and acquisition of businesses should be independently decided by the companies involved, signaling that it wouldn’t block a potential sale.

Last week, Bloomberg News was the first to report that the Chinese government was looking at the possibility of having Musk acquire TikTok’s US subsidiary if the Supreme Court ruled against the company. Under one of the scenarios that were reportedly being explored, TikTok’s US operations would be folded into Musk’s X.

TikTok dismissed the report as “pure fiction.”