TikTok was temporarily taken offline for users across America over the weekend shortly before the federal divest-or-ban law took effect.
President Donald Trump said on Jan. 21 that he is open to the possibility of billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison purchasing the video-sharing app TikTok, telling reporters that he would like the platform to be partly owned by the U.S..
Trump made the comments during a White House press briefing when asked if he was open to Musk, co-leader of Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency, buying the platform.
“I would be, if he wanted to buy it,” Trump told reporters. “I’d like Larry to buy it, too,” he said of Ellison, who was in attendance at the conference.
Trump added that he “has the right” to make a deal to ensure the popular social media platform—used by 170 million Americans—can continue running in the United States.
TikTok was temporarily taken offline for users across the United States over the weekend, shortly before the federal divest-or-ban law took effect.
The legislation was signed into law by then-President Joe Biden and required ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based parent company, to divest itself of TikTok in the United States by Jan. 19 on national security grounds or face a ban in one of its largest markets.
In the lead-up to the ban going into effect, Trump regularly praised TikTok, even though he had sought to ban the app in 2020.
After returning to office on Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order putting enforcement of the law on hold for 75 days, thus granting his administration more time to negotiate a sale or an alternative solution to a full-scale ban on the video-sharing app.
The app has since returned online, although it remained unavailable for U.S. users of Google Play and Apple’s app store on Jan. 21.
TikTok’s U.S. business has been valued by analysts at around $40 billion to $50 billion; however, Trump told reporters during the press conference that the app would be “worthless” without a permit to operate in the United States.
