Trump continues to sow confusion when it comes to the fate of TikTok:
After days of whiplash over the future of TikTok, President Donald Trump said he would allow an American company to acquire the short-form video app — with a catch.
Trump on Monday set September 15 as the deadline for TikTok to find a US buyer, failing which he said he will shut down the app in the country. In an unusual declaration, Trump also said any deal would have to include a “substantial amount of money” coming to the US Treasury.
“Right now they don’t have any rights unless we give it to them. So if we’re going to give them the rights, then … it has to come into this country,” Trump said. “It’s a great asset, but it’s not a great asset in the United States unless they have approval in the United States.” [CNN/Business]
Now he sounds like a fucking mob boss as well as someone whose fixation on money – immediate money – will easily be manipulated into decisions damaging to the United States.
Of course, he may simply be trying to maneuver the parties involved into doing what he wants them to do – give his popularity in the United States a boost, to wit. It doesn’t seem likely that this is even legal:
The President’s requirement that some of the money from the deal go to the US Treasury doesn’t have a basis in antitrust law, according to Gene Kimmelman, a former chief counsel for the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and currently a senior adviser to the policy group Public Knowledge.
“This is quite unusual, this is out of the norm,” Kimmelman said. “It’s actually quite hard to understand what the president is actually talking about here. … It’s not unheard of for transactions to have broader geopolitical implications between countries, but it’s quite remarkable to think about some kind of money being on the table in connection with a transaction.”
I’m surprised Trump didn’t suggest that a large donation to the Trump Foundation would help smooth the deal.
Oh, yeah, that’s right – the Trump Foundation has been shut down for admitted (by Trump family members) violations of charity law.
Getting back to the topic at hand, which is Trump’s state of mind – maybe I didn’t stray too far – my best guess is that the President is trying to keep this particular controversy, manufactured as it may be, in front of the public, blotting out the glaring sun that is the Administration’s incompetency at managing the Covid-19 crisis.
Look for more sound & fury, and a lack of light, over the next few days.
