How Trump could buy TikTok
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Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
President Trump is effusive about TikTok's economic promise, and there's nothing legally stopping him from trying to buy it.
The big picture: Presidents are allowed to run private businesses and make investments while in office. They just usually don't.
- Trump has flouted such norms. He launched a the Trump crypto token shortly before his inauguration, and The Trump Organization has only promised to forgo deals with foreign governments, not foreign enterprises.
Reality check: Trump hasn't floated the idea of buying TikTok, at least not publicly.
- But he'd be the one to sign off on any potential transaction, and has said his signature could be the difference between TikTok being "worthless" or "worth maybe a $1 trillion."
- In short, it might be too tantalizing for him to not at least kick the tires.
Between the lines: Trump doesn't have enough liquid assets to buy TikTok on his own, and would probably not be the largest check on this hypothetical deal.
- But he could sell a portion of his $3.7 billion stake in Truth Social's parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group, or sell his meme coins for a higher price. His first batch of coins netted some $36 million, based on Chainalysis data, and if he were to sell at current market price, Trump could make $1.3 billion at his next scheduled drop.
- He also could borrow against his real estate portfolio, though banks might balk at that until an appeal is heard on his defamation and fraud cases in New York. On the flip side, corporations have been keen on currying favor with him.
The list of TikTok suitors keeps growing, with last week's news of a consortium that includes Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast) and Roblox CEO David Baszucki.
- Others kicking tires include Microsoft, Steve Mnuchin, Frank McCourt, and (maybe) Oracle.
Reality check: The Chinese government will have say in any potential TikTok divestment, and could see Trump's involvement as either a net positive or net negative.
- Even if Trump does not buy a piece of TikTok, ethicists argue that a president shouldn't have such a large say on a social media business.
- "It'll go to people close to the president. That's the real threat to the First Amendment," says Richard Painter, chief white house ethics lawyer during the Bush administration.
The bottom line: It would be an ethical mess for Trump to buy into TikTok. But those criticisms haven't stopped him in the past.
