Former US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Thursday that he is assembling a group of investors to try to buy video app TikTok.
what you should Know
- Former US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Thursday that he is assembling a group of investors to try to buy video app TikTok
- The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill on Wednesday that would force TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app within six months of the law taking effect or ban it in the United States
- In his role as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States during Donald Trump’s presidency, Mnuchin played a key role in the executive order Trump signed in 2020 that would have banned TikTok unless it was acquired by an American company
- CNBC’s Mnuchin’s ‘Squawk Box’ He’s Talked to ‘A Bunch’ of Potential Bid Partners for TikTok, but Declines to Name
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill on Wednesday that would force TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app within six months of the law taking effect or ban it in the United States. Those who support the legislation argue that ByteDance is beholden to the Chinese government and TikTok poses national security concerns.
In his role as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States during Donald Trump’s presidency, Mnuchin played a key role in the executive order Trump signed in 2020 that would have banned TikTok unless it was acquired by an American company .
A court blocked Trump’s ban after TikTok sued, and then President Joe Biden in 2021 reversed Trump’s directive while ordering a broad review of foreign-owned apps.
In an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Mnuchin said he continues to believe TikTok should be sold, also citing national security concerns.
“It should be owned by American business,” he said. “There’s no way the Chinese would ever allow an American company to own something like this in China.”
But Mnuchin added that he would not want the app to be banned in the US
“It’s a great company,” he said. “It would be terrible if it closed. Many users use it. And we need a competitor to Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.”
Before being nominated as Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Mnuchin was a financier and film investor. Today, he is the founder and managing partner of Liberty Strategic Capital, a private equity firm based in Washington, DC.
He told CNBC that he had spoken to “a bunch” of potential partners to make a bid for TikTok, but declined to name names.
Mnuchin said it would be a mix of investors, with no one person controlling the company.
He said he doesn’t think a big tech company like Meta or Google should be allowed to buy TikTok because such a sale would face potential antitrust issues.
Asked if he thought six months was enough time to do a deal on the app, he said: “I think a lot can be done in six months. It might take a little longer,” adding that he thinks the app needs to be rebuilt with “American technology.”
Mnuchin said there is “no question” that the Chinese government has “both the ability to influence data and the ability to collect data” on TikTok.
He declined to answer a question about whether China was currently using the app in a sinister way, saying he could not publicly share some of the information he learned as finance minister.
TikTok did not respond to emails from Spectrum News seeking comment. ByteDance has not said the app is for sale.
The company has long denied that it could be used as a tool of the Chinese government. TikTok said it has never shared US user data with Chinese authorities and would not do so if asked. To date, the US government has also provided no evidence to show that TikTok has shared such information with Chinese authorities.
Reversing his previous stance, Trump recently opposed the TikTok ban.
The former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee this year told CNBC on Monday that he now fears that banning TikTok will “make Facebook bigger, and I think Facebook is the enemy of the people, along with the media.” He justified his position by repeating a debunked claim that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg spent hundreds of millions of dollars to help Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump recently met with Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor who reportedly owns a $33 billion stake in TikTok, but the former president says Yass did not mention the company.
Mnuchin said he had not spoken to Trump about his plans for TikTok, but said he believed his former boss would approve the sale.
“I think he doesn’t want to shut down because he’s concerned about the power it would create for Facebook,” Mnuchin said. “I believe he would support the sale.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Note: This article was updated to correct the spelling of Stever Mnuchin’s name.