BUSINESS/CHINA/SOCIAL MEDIA: “[TikTok] can’t be controlled for security reasons by China, too big, too invasive, and it can’t be. Here’s the deal. I don’t mind if, whether it’s Microsoft or somebody else, a big company, a secure company, a very American company buy it. It’s probably easier to buy the whole thing than to buy 30% of it. Because I say, how do you do 30%, who’s going to get the name? The name is hot. The brand is hot…
I set a date of around September 15th, at which point it’s going to be out of business in the United States. But if somebody, and whether it’s Microsoft or somebody else buys it, that’ll be interesting. I did say that if you buy it, whatever the price is, that goes to whoever owns it, because I guess it’s China essentially, but more than anything else.
I said a very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the Treasury of the United States because we’re making it possible for this deal to happen. Right now, they don’t have any rights unless we give it to them. So if we’re going to give them the rights, then it has to come into this country.”
-Donald Trump, “Remarks by President Trump in a Meeting with U.S. Tech Workers and Signing of an Executive Order on Hiring American,” whitehouse.gov, Aug. 3, 2020