Trump wants it for free or close to it, the longer they wait, the more pressure on TikTok to cave even more and accept pennies on dollar etc
Trump wants it for free or close to it, the longer they wait, the more pressure on TikTok to cave even more and accept pennies on dollar etc
This has nothing to do with money and it's not some elaborate scheme to make a few billion off of ByteDance. The U.S. has shelled out trillions for COVID already so a few billion off the sale price are drops in the bucket.
It's pretty clear at this point that Trump Admin. was originally looking for a sale to minimize disruption of U.S. TikTok users and help out U.S. investors, but China blocked the deal. The narrative now is that "Trump opposes the deal". It's rumoured that the original recommendation from Mnuchin to Trump was to have ByteDance spin out U.S. operations, but if that's getting blocked then China wants to force a ban so there is blowback to U.S. stakeholders.
Not sure why you said that China blocked the sale. It is Trump that declared he wanted a total ban and didn't like the idea of MSFT buying TikTok. Shortly after that announcement, MSFT and TikTok paused the negotiation. It is more likely that MSFT and its lobbyists are trying to haggle some kind of resolution with Trump administration at this moment.
He is flip flopping as many times as Boris on the Huawei thing....Trump did say that but on the initial announcement Friday afternoon, Trump was vague and said he was looking to take action which could include a potential ban. The tone changed a few hours later where Trump said he was looking for a ban and will not consider a divestiture.
Trump did say that but on the initial announcement Friday afternoon, Trump was vague and said he was looking to take action which could include a potential ban. The tone changed a few hours later where Trump said he was looking for a ban and will not consider a divestiture.
Trump is just being Trump. One of his advisers probably persuaded him that a total ban of TikTok is more beneficial for his election. It has been like this for this administration. Trump could still change his mind again.
Someone was working behind the scenes to get Bannon, Navarro, Pompeo, and all the other China hawks into his circle.
FB and Google are most threatened by TikTok but most US tech giants want TikTok to be banned.