Trump says he is fine with the idea of Microsoft buying TikTok in US, but the US government should be paid a “substantial amount of money” as part of the deal
Today the President appeared to bless the budding Microsoft-TikTok deal, continuing his evolution on a possible transaction.
TechCrunchAlex Wilhelm
Context & Ripple Effects
A day after Satya Nadella spoke with Trump and Microsoft set a September 15 deadline for its TikTok talks, the President publicly blessed the acquisition — while attaching a condition no acquirer had planned for: a "substantial" payment to the US government as part of the deal. The Wall Street Journal's editorial board objected the same day, urging Microsoft to refuse a payoff it called a dangerous precedent for seizing foreign businesses through regulatory fiat.
What read then as a one-off shakedown demand proved to be the template: five years on, Trump was floating a joint venture giving the US government 50% ownership [[a:881606]], and later claimed Xi Jinping had approved a transaction valuing TikTok US at $14B. This 2020 moment is where the government-as-paid-stakeholder idea first surfaced.
First-order effects
Microsoft's negotiating position shifts overnight: presidential support comes bundled with a direct Treasury payment that sits outside any normal M&A structure, and the September 15 deadline leaves little room to litigate the ask.
ByteDance's expected net proceeds shrink, since any approved buyer must now fund both the purchase and the government's cut — with the WSJ arguing Microsoft should walk rather than pay.
Second-order effects
Alternative suitors named in later coverage — Elon Musk or Larry Ellison — inherit the same surcharge, so the government take becomes a fixed cost across every bid rather than a Microsoft-specific concession.
Rivals and foreign sellers watching the deal learn that US regulatory approval is negotiable for a fee, repricing how politically exposed tech assets are valued in American transactions.
Third-order effects
Forced divestiture evolves from a national-security remedy into a revenue event for the state — a trajectory the corpus traces through the 50% government-ownership proposal and the eventual $14B valuation claim.
If the pattern holds, reciprocal treatment abroad becomes the open question: other governments gain a playbook for extracting payments when Western-owned platforms face forced local sales.
The trend: Forced divestitures of foreign-owned apps are turning from pure security remedies into transactions where the US government positions itself as a paid stakeholder.
#BREAKING: President Trump says TikTok must be bought by US company and pay cut of selling price into US Treasury: “Right now they don't have any rights unless we give it to them.” https://twitter.com/...
Trump today said that the U.S. Treasury should get “a very substantial portion” of the sale fee if TikTok is bought — a claim that skates very close to extortion. https://www.axios.com/...
NEW: In a sharp reversal from last week, Trump blesses a TikTok/Microsoft deal — though says some portion of the sale “should go to the treasury” (!?!?) w/ @AnaSwanson https://www.nytimes.com/...
The full Trump statements are even more troubling than the initial tweet paraphrasing. He is literally saying part of the purchase price must go to Treasury because there's no deal w/out the WH approval. Don't see how that's anything but extortion.
A US company should buy TikTok so everyone can keep using it and your data is safe. This is about privacy. With TikTok in China, it's subject to Chinese Communist Party laws that may require handing over data to their government. A safe way must be found for TikTok to continue.
Trump says TikTok will close in the United States on Sept 15 unless Microsoft buys it. He says he's fine with Microsoft buying it. https://twitter.com/...
https://www.bloomberg.com/... “...one of one of four or five American technology companies, Yahoo, Google, Cisco and others, who helped China originally build the Great Firewall of China, which is used to surveil, track, monitor, censor and imprison the Chinese people” —Navarro.🤔…
This is fucking gibberish. And any republican who even nods in his direction is agreeing with the biggest socialist move in American history. Democrats just know it's nonsense. https://twitter.com/...
Libertarian internal screaming (and hilarious WH silence) aside, this doesn't seem encouraging for future foreign (non-China) investment in the USA https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/...
By saying the US Treasury should get a cut of any Microsoft-TikTok sale, Trump seems to have come out in favor of a merger-and-acquisition tax. Very Warren-ish. https://twitter.com/...
Tensions between China and the United States could impact American businesses. If America is seen as a toxic brand by Chinese consumers, it could result in less iPhone sales and a rejection of American brands. The situation with @tiktok_us will be interesting to watch. https://tw…
The US is no longer a productive entity. I've said since Trump's trade war that this was a mafia shakedown of the rising superpower by a busted flush. Tariffs, Huawei, TikTok - US wants for its billionaires what China invests in its people/infrastructure. https://www.wsj.com/...
Dear econ friends, and I'm sincerely asking here. Is there any precedent for any company paying “key money” to the US Treasury in an acquisition deal? https://www.cnbc.com/...
So I guess we're all just going to go along with the president asking for a kickback from Microsoft for allowing it to buy TikTok, and Microsoft writing a blog post basically promising to pay him?
@SenSchumer Ha! Bill Gates keep my Data Safe. Where have you been the last 2 decades Mr. Schumar? Microsoft can't even keep Windows safe. Let's see why MS would want Tik-Tok shall we? https://www.theverge.com/...
Is this nationalist conservatism? Make America “pay to play”? Trump calls TikTok a hot brand, demands a chunk of its sale price | TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/...
Trump Says U.S. Should Get Slice of TikTok Sale Price President says he told Microsoft's Nadella that U.S. should get a cut 'because we're making it possible for this deal to happen' https://www.wsj.com/...
If you want companies to give the government “a cut” for making their business “possible,” there's an avenue for that: Corporate taxes. https://twitter.com/...
The US government isn't bailing out Microsoft and as far as we know, it isn't providing the financing for this deal. Those would be good reasons for the USG to get equity. Giving regulatory approval doesn't come with a percentage of the business like a finders fee. https://twitte…
Grappling with the depressing possibility that this is a thing they've actually managed to frighten people into worrying about. “I just turned my back on little Timmy for a second, and the ChiComs snatched him right off the street!” https://twitter.com/...
https://twitter.com/... you just KNOW they're serious about privacy and security from the way they refuse to fund election security improvements, to their relentless attacks on anything even vaguely resembling an internet-era consumer privacy law