Former Trump administration Transportation Secretary Steven Mnuchin is reportedly pooling together an investment group that intends to purchase TikTok if the app is ultimately sold by its Chinese Communist Party-affiliated owner.
The news follows the Wednesday passage of a bipartisan bill in the House of Representatives that seeks to force TikTok to be sold by its Chinese parent company ByteDance or face a nationwide ban in the U.S.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act easily passed in the House 352-65.
Republicans and Democrats have expressed concerns that TikTok is a national security threat.
A few detractors on both sides of the aisle have criticized the bill for being too broad in its scope and for potentially offering the executive branch too much power regarding censorship.
But if the Senate advances the bill, the White House has said President Joe Biden will sign it into law.
Six months from the date the bill is signed, if it indeed is, ByteDance would have to either abandon 170 million American users or find a buyer that is not based in China, North Korea, Russia or Iran -- countries currently listed as adversaries to Americans and their interests by the federal government.
Mnuchin said Thursday on CNBC he hopes he and others could ultimately end up with the keys to the video-sharing application.
On "Squawk Box,” the former Trump White House cabinet official said he supports the bill to force the sale of TikTok.
“I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold," Mnuchin said of the bill.
One day after the US House of Representatives voted to force TikTok to divest from China or be banned, Donald Trump’s former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin says he is putting together a group to buy TikTok.
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) March 14, 2024
He then said, ”It's a great business and I'm going to put together a group to buy TikTok.”
Per CNBC, Mnuchin’s investment firm Liberty Strategic Capital and ByteDance are connected in the business world by the venture capital fund Softbank Vision Fund which both companies have worked with.
Mnuchin concluded that forcing ByteDance to divest from TikTok if it wants to operate in the U.S. is a no-brainer.
"This should be owned by U.S. businesses,” he told CNBC. “There's no way that the Chinese would ever let a U.S. company own something like this in China.”
Mnuchin did not discuss how much cash he and others are prepared to pony up to buy the app if the opportunity presents itself, but TikTok was recently valued at $220 billion.
He and others who would be interested in owning the company have several hurdles facing them.
The Senate has not indicated if or when it will take up the bill.
Meanwhile, as CNBC noted, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has said selling the app is not an option.
It is also unclear if leaders in Beijing would even permit such a sale.
