President Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday that he would support Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s decision to purchase TikTok if Musk chose to do so, Reuters reported.
Trump’s remarks came after TikTok, the popular video-sharing app with 170 million American users, was temporarily taken offline as a US law requiring its sale by Chinese owner ByteDance went into effect on Sunday. The law cited national security concerns over the potential misuse of Americans’ data under Chinese ownership.
“I’d be open to it if he wanted to buy it,” Trump told reporters when asked about Musk potentially acquiring the platform. “I’ve met with TikTok’s big owners. My thinking is simple—buy it and give half to the United States of America.”
Bloomberg News reported that Chinese officials had had preliminary discussions about selling TikTok’s US operations to Musk. ByteDance has denied the reports. Meanwhile, TikTok was still unavailable for download on Apple and Android devices in the US as of Tuesday afternoon.
Musk, a vocal supporter of Trump and the billionaire owner of social media platform X, does not believe TikTok should be banned. He highlighted the lack of a level playing field between the US and China.
“I have been against a TikTok ban for a long time, because it goes against freedom of speech,” Musk said over the weekend. “That said, the current situation where TikTok is allowed to operate in America, but X is not allowed to operate in China is unbalanced.”
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order delaying the enforcement of the TikTok sale law by 75 days, giving the platform’s owners more time to negotiate a sale.
The law’s critics, including free speech advocates, argue that the ban is excessive and violates fundamental rights.
In response to national security concerns, ByteDance maintains that TikTok’s recommendation engine and user data are stored on US-based servers operated by Oracle, with content moderation decisions also made domestically.