Steven Mnuchin, the investor and former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury who served under Donald Trump, is looking to buy out TikTok’s U.S. operations. This would mean establishing a separate firm under American ownership that would be allowed to continue operations in the U.S. should a proposed new bill that would force TikTok to cease operating in America due to its Chinese ownership pass into law.
There have been calls for several years now that TikTok should be banned within the United States due to security concerns. The video sharing service is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. American officials say the company’s app can embed tracking software on a user’s device that can also steal private information. Because of this, the U.S. has banned its use by government employees.
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Steven Mnuchin told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that he agrees with the proposed new law.
“I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold,” he said. “It’s a great business and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok.”
“This should be owned by U.S. businesses. There’s no way that the Chinese would ever let a U.S. company own something like this in China,” added Steven Mnuchin.
However, Mnuchin revealed no information or specifics about a plan to acquire TikTok. There has not even been any mention of an estimated price tag for its U.S. business.
HR 7521 – proposed in the US House of Representatives that would see the banning of TikTok in America. The bill comes after several years in which there have been growing calls to ban TikTok by those who say the popular video app allows its Chinese owners to gain illicit access to the devices that use it. However, the JNFA supports the ban because TikTok has enabled the proliferation of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda since the barbaric massacre enacted by the terrorist group Hamas on October 7, 2023.
The proposed new law prohibits distributing, maintaining, or providing internet hosting services for a foreign adversary-controlled application. However, the prohibition does not apply to a covered application that executes a qualified divestiture as determined by the President. The bill refers specifically to ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, but, if passed into law, could be used against any other business said to be working on behalf of an enemy government.
Steven Mnuchin, who was treasury secretary in the Trump administration, established Liberty Strategic Capital soon after he left office in 2021 together with former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman. The firm is based in Washington and has an office in Tel Aviv.
