Trump Proposes 50% US Ownership of TikTok: ‘Without Our Approval, There Is No…’

Trump Proposes 50% US Ownership of TikTok: Just hours after a brief shutdown of TikTok across the United States, President-elect Donald Trump proposed to let the US government own 50 percent of the popular short video-sharing platform.

Trump said he decided to rescue TikTok because the platform, used by 170 million Americans, helped him reach young voters, has a "tremendous" audience, and the cessation of its operations in the U.S. would cost Americans jobs, as per the reports.

"We have no choice. We have to save a lot of jobs," Trump said at a rally on Sunday ahead of his inauguration. "We don't want to give our business to China. We don't want to give our business to other people."

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He told the crowd at a Capital One Arena rally that Congress gave the president the right to make a deal and "do whatever he wants" to fulfill the law requirements that went into effect on Sunday. Congress ordered TikTok to divest from ByteDance or face a ban over national security concerns.

"So I said, very simply, a joint venture," Trump told the crowd. "So if TikTok is worth nothing, zero without an approved, you know, you don't approve, they're out of business."

This way, he said, the company would retain its value. "I'll approve, but let the United States of America own 50% of TikTok," he added. "We're going to have a lot of bidders. The United States will do what we call a joint venture."

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Though Trump sought to ban TikTok during his first term, he reversed that stance during his 2024 campaign, when he came to believe a ban would help the app's rival, Facebook, which he held responsible, in part, to his 2020 election loss to Biden.

Trump ended up joining the app last year and has grown his following to nearly 15 million users. He has since credited the app for helping him win over young voters.

"I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok," he said during a December.

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