President Donald Trump said tariffs on China could depend on whether there’s a deal for TikTok. He signed an executive order allowing the popular video app to continue to run in the U.S. for 75 more days.
According to Financial Times, hours after being sworn in on Monday, Trump pushed back a deadline requiring ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, to divest its stake in the US or face being banned from the country.
“If TikTok keeps operating past that deadline, the U.S. should get half of it,” Trump said. He also warned that he could impose tariffs on China if it refused a deal, calling such a rejection a “hostile act.”
Trump awaits China’s agreement, or else he’d put 100% tariffs
Trump wasn’t ruling out extreme measures and said tariffs could rise to 100%. But in the end, he says Beijing would agree or “we’d put tariffs on China,” he said as he signed the order in the Oval Office. “I’m not saying I would.” he said, “but you certainly could do that. ”
The executive order states that the additional 75 days would give his administration additional time to determine TikTok’s future. That also reassures companies like Apple, Google, and cloud provider Oracle, which distribute or host TikTok, that they’re not going to bear the brunt of any punishment in the interim. Under current laws, these service providers could have been fined up to $5,000 per user.
The Supreme Court upheld the ban, sending TikTok offline briefly at midnight Sunday. Yet hours later, service was back up after the company said Trump had given enough assurances that service providers wouldn’t be penalized.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew had been working behind the scenes to keep the app running, especially after Trump hinted during his campaign that he wanted to “save” it. Over the weekend, Chew even publicly praised Trump with tech giants Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg at Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
Some U.S. lawmakers and security officials are worried that China’s government could use TikTok to spy on Americans or tweak the platform’s algorithm to manipulate TikTok users. Beijing has no influence over the app, as per TikTok claims.
China, for its part, has made it clear it doesn’t want a forced sale. Moreover, ByteDance has said TikTok can’t be sold within the given timeframe anyway.
TikTok would remain in the U.S, possibly under Elon Musk
Despite the challenges, Trump insisted that if TikTok remains in the U.S. past the deadline, “half of its value” should go to the country. “If I don’t do the deal, it’s worthless. If I do it, maybe it’s worth a trillion dollars,” says Trump.
Chinese officials are considering using Musk, who has close ties to Trump, as a broker for the app’s U.S. operations.
Musk himself weighed in on Sunday, complaining about an imbalance. The video-making app is allowed in the U.S., but platform X is banned in China. “Something needs to change,” he said.
Musk made an exception here. He rarely speaks out on issues sensitive to Beijing, as Tesla relies so much on China for both manufacturing and sales.
Trump’s threat of tariffs over a TikTok deal has yet to receive an official response from China. But on Monday, its foreign ministry said that any decision about the app’s ownership should be based on “market principles” and left up to the companies involved.
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