Trump Says Part Of The Amount Paid To Buy Tiktok Should Go To The U.S. Treasury Department For Facilitating The Deal

Donald Trump warned he would ban TikTok in the U.S. starting Sept. 15, unless an American company purchases it, and said a significant amount of the buyout deal should go to the country's Treasury. The president advised Microsoft that if it plans to buy the Chinese-owned app, it should buy it in its entirety, rather than purchasing a small part of it because the name would be divided between two companies.

Recalling his conversation with Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella, Trump told reporters in the Cabinet Room at the White House on Monday that he thought buying 30 percent can prove to be complicated, but suggested Nadella that he can go ahead and try. Just a day before this comment, Microsoft had released a statement expressing its interest in buying TikTok in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada.

A larger buy out deal is likely to go beyond addressing the U.S. government's concern over Chinese management of the app, where millions of people post short videos that usually feature music. A transaction Trump envisions is likely to turn out to be more expensive than what the tech giant described earlier this week.

The president insisted on Monday that a part of the amount the company pays to buy TikTok would have to come to the country's Treasury Department because it would be facilitating the deal. He compared this to the landlord/tenant relationship, adding that without a lease the tenant has nothing so they pay something, particularly the key money.

He went on to say that the country should be reimbursed or should be paid a significant amount of the money because, with the country's support, the buyout deal would not come to fruition. Microsoft's largest acquisition came in 2016 when the company acquired business social network LinkedIn for a whopping $2.7 billion.

Investors of the privately-owned ByteDance, the Chinese internet technology company that owns TikTok valued the app at a staggering $50 billion, according to Reuters. Microsoft said on Sunday that it wants to conclude talks with ByteDance by Sept. 15, the date Trump says he will ban the app if it doesn't sell to an American company.

The popularity of TikTok has been part of the U.S. government's ongoing concern about China that led to a trade war. Trump administration officials have accused TikTok of delivering user details to the Chinese Communist Party, while the video-sharing app claims U.S. user data is stored in the U.S.