Trump pushes for US having controlling stake in Tiktok
Six lawmakers urge prez to reject proposal where Bytedance keeps over 50% stake
US President Donald Trump raised questions on Wednesday about plans by China’s Bytedance to keep a majority stake in the US operations of popular social media platform Tiktok after six Republican lawmakers urged him to reject the proposal.
Trump had previously threatened to ban the app unless its US operations were sold to a US company and the US government received a share of the proceeds.
“Conceptually, I can tell you that I don’t like that,” Trump told a news conference when asked about a reported proposal to give Oracle only a minority share. “I’m not prepared to sign off on anything. They’re going to be reporting to me tomorrow morning and I’ll let you know.”
Rubio, the first senator to call on the administration to investigate Tiktok over censorship concerns, cited “serious questions” remained about Oracle’s role, the technology it would provide to Bytedance, and the future of the application’s algorithm in a letter to Trump dated Wednesday.
“We remain opposed to any deal that would allow Chinabased or controlled entities to retain, control or modify the code or algorithms that operate any Us-based version of Tiktok,” he wrote.
“We are heartened that this deal still requires government approval, and if reports indicating this proposed deal will retain links to Bytedance or other Chinese-controlled entities, we strongly urge the administration to reject such a proposal on national security grounds,” he added.
Late on Wednesday, Senator Ted Cruz sent a separate letter to Trump arguing that the Oracle Bytedance deal “failed to meet the intent of the president’s executive orders” and “raises serious national security concerns.”
White House press secretary Kayleigh Mcenany earlier told reporters a decision would be made “in short order.” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said security and the ownership question were of paramount concern. The Rubio letter, also signed by Senators Thom Tillis, Rick Scott, John Cornyn, Roger Wicker and Dan Sullivan, is part of a growing chorus of lawmakers raising questions about the deal.
On Monday, Republican Senator Josh Hawley sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who heads a national security panel reviewing the proposal, calling for the deal to be scuttled.