US President Donald Trump has expressed openness to tech billionaire Elon Musk, owner of social media platform X, acquiring the Chinese-owned app TikTok.
Trump's comments come amidst ongoing legal challenges faced by TikTok in the United States, with a law mandating the company's divestment from its Chinese owner ByteDance or face a nationwide ban.
When asked about possibility of Musk, the world's richest man and the head of a budget-cutting initiative in the new administration, buying the popular social media platform Trump told reporters, "I would be if he wanted to buy it," as quoted by AFP.
In one of his first acts upon returning to office, Trump ordered a 75-day pause on enforcing the law that would have effectively made TikTok illegal in the country on Sunday, a day before his second term began. The executive order directed the attorney general to delay the implementation of the law.
Trump also suggested a potential 50-50 partnership between "the United States" and ByteDance as a way to save TikTok's US operations, although he did not provide specifics on how this arrangement could be achieved.
The TikTok ban was enacted due to concerns over the Chinese government's potential exploitation of the app for espionage or covert influence on US public opinion through data collection and content manipulation.
When asked if his phone had TikTok installed, which is banned on US government devices, Trump responded, "No, but... I think I'll get it right now."
TikTok briefly shut down in the United States late Saturday as the law's sale deadline approached, leaving millions of users unable to access the app. However, with the tacit cooperation of its server provider, Oracle, TikTok restored service in the United States on Sunday, crediting Trump's commitment to saving the app for making the reversal possible.
Despite the restoration of service, Apple and Google have not yet made the app available in their app stores, preventing new users from downloading TikTok and existing users from receiving updates. Companies that violate the law, which remains officially in effect, face penalties of up to $5,000 per user if the app is accessed.
Musk has been openly opposed to TikTok ban claiming it goes against freedom of speech. "I have been against a TikTok ban for a long time, because it goes against freedom of speech. That said, the current situation where TikTok is allowed to operate in America, but �� is not allowed to operate in China is unbalanced. Something needs to change," Musk had said on Sunday, soon after TikTok was back online after a brief shutdown.
Last week, a report suggesting that Chinese officials were considering selling the company's US operations to Musk's social media platform X was met with a firm denial from TikTok.
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