donald trump likes tiktok and he's going to save it

Steven Mnuchin is ‘putting together a group’ to buy TikTok

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Written on Mar 14, 2024
Reading time 2 minutes
  • Former Treasury Secretary says TikTok is a great business.
  • Mnuchin did not reveal the names of investors for now.
  • U.S. House recently passed a bill related to TikTok ban.

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All eyes are on TikTok today after Steven Mnuchin – the former Treasury Secretary of the United States said “I’m putting together a group to try to buy TikTok”.

Mnuchin sees TikTok as a ‘great business’

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His comment arrives only a day after the U.S. House passed a bill that would push ByteDance to divest its stake in the short video platform or have TikTok banned in the United States.

Mnuchin did not reveal the names of investors he’s working with to proceed with the purchase but said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” today:

I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold. It’s a great business and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok.

Note that Steven Mnuchin recently made a sizable investment to help the embattled New York Community Bancorp Inc as well (read more).

Donald Trump has changed stance on TikTok

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Steven Mnuchin served as secretary of the treasury from 2017 to 2021 under President Donald Trump.

At the time, that administration also saw TikTok as a threat to national security that forced ByteDance – the Beijing headquartered owner of the social media platform to agree to a data partnership with Oracle.

More recently, however, Donald Trump has changed his stance on a TikTok ban. In a recent interview with CNBC, he said:

There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it. Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people.

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