Trump Says Part of TikTok Sale Should Go to U.S. Government

Donald Trump thinks the U.S. government should benefit from the sale of video sharing app TikTok. The President previously said he wanted to ban the popular app.

TikTok may be partially sold to Microsoft in an effort to overcome the Trump administration’s concerns about is Chinese ownership and the security implication.

The President suggested that part of the proceeds from the sale should go to the American government.

“I said, ‘Look it can’t be controlled for security reasons by China,” he said.

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“Here’s the deal, I don’t mind whether it’s Microsoft or somebody else — a big company, a secure company, a very American company buy it.”

“My personal opinion was you probably better off buying the whole thing rather buying than 30 percent of it,” Trump went on.

“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 is gonna have to come into the Treasury of the United States because we’re making it possible for this deal to happen.”

It is very unlikely the U.S. government will get a cut of any sale, but Trump defended the idea anyway.

“It’s a little bit like the landlord-tenant,” he said..

“Without a lease, the tenant has nothing, so they pay what’s called key money or they pay something but the United States should be reimbursed or should be paid a substantial amount of money because without the United States they don’t have anything.”

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Darragh Roche

Darragh Roche is a journalist covering U.S. politics and media