TikTok will ‘close down’ on September 15 unless an American company buys it, says Trump

Donald Trump had said he was going to ban TikTok on August 2, but a 45-day window has been ‘negotiated’.

The US president announced the news at the White House and went on to say that he believes that Microsoft or any other big, secure and a very American company should buy TikTok. (Pixabay)

US President Donald Trump has threatened that TikTok will be out of business in the US on September 15 if ByteDance, its parent company, does not sell it and provide the US Treasure Department “with a lot of money”. This comes off an earlier claim Trump made about banning the app on August 2.

Trump's new threat, according to reports, follows the news of Microsoft negotiating a 45-day window to acquire the company, as confirmed in a blog post.

The US president announced the news at the White House and went on to say that he believes that Microsoft or any other big, secure and a very American company should buy TikTok. Trump argued that this American company should buy the whole company from ByteDance and not just its US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia operations since he thinks that buying 30% is complicated.

Trump also stressed on the fact that any deal must send a substantial portion of the price to the US Treasury Department. While he did not explain what that exactly means, he compared the US government's relationship with companies to one between landlords and tenants.

Trump said that these companies did not have any rights unless it was given to them and only if they were given rights could they come into the country, much like the landlord-tenant relationship. “Without a lease the tenant has nothing,” Trump said.

He added that TikTok will close down on September 15 unless Microsoft, or another company, manages to buy and also manages to work out an appropriate deal with the US Treasury. Microsoft's blog about buying TikTok also mentions providing proper economic benefits to the US along with the US Treasury.

The Trump administration has been hot-stepping on this TikTok ban for weeks now without actually furnishing enough details. They have cited reasons like national security threats and a desire to punish China for the global pandemic etc. 

Over the past week, the Trump administration “settled” on requiring ByteDance to spin-off TikTok. This is something the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) can require.

CFIUS can penalise ByteDance if it does not sell off TikTok, but Trump's “ban” language has “much more sweeping implications”.