Trump Signs Order For Sovereign US Wealth Fund, Could Buy TikTok

After speaking with a handful of potential buyers interested in buying the ByteDance-owned social platform TikTok, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday ordering the U.S. treasury and commerce departments to create a sovereign wealth fund that could become the app's new potential buyer within the next year.

Trump, who has not provided specific details about how the government-owned investment fund would function, told reporters that the federal government is “going to create a lot of wealth for the fund,” although the U.S. currently operates at a deficit, according to Reuters.

Trump vaguely explained that the fund could be created with “tremendous amounts of money” coming from “tariffs and other intelligent things.”

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“We're going to monetize the asset side of the U.S. balance sheet for the American people,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. “There'll be a combination of liquid assets, assets that we have in this country as we work to bring them out for the American people.”

Besent told reporters that the fund would be set up within the next year, with Trump stating that the fund might be used to purchase TikTok.

The popular social-media app, which has about 170 million active users in the U.S., was taken offline in the region for less than 24 hours on January 19th after a bill that forced ByteDance to sell the app on national security grounds took effect.

Upon taking office the next day, Trump signed an executive order delaying the enforcement of the sell-off law by 75 days.

Since then, various tech moguls, companies and media personalities have announced tentative plans to purchase TikTok, including social media sensation Jimmy Donaldson – aka MrBeast – as well as Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, Microsoft, and Perplexity AI, which last week offered a merger bid with the U.S. government.

Trump has previously named billionaire and X-owner Elon Musk as a potential buyer, but Musk has yet to confirm any interest in purchasing TikTok.

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