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Trump met with a billionaire GOP donor with a big stake in TikTok just days before he publicly tried to save the app

Mar 12, 2024, 03:19 IST
Business Insider
Former President Donald Trump in Tulsa, Okla.AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki
  • On Friday, Trump spoke out against a bill that would force ByteDance to divest from TikTok.
  • During his time in the White House, Trump tried to ban the app but lost in the courts.
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Former President Donald Trump recently said he is against banning TikTok, a reversal from his previous position. His comments came soon after meeting with a billionaire GOP donor with a large stake in the company.

On March 8, Trump argued on Truth Social, "If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business."

"I don't want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better," he said. "They are a true Enemy of the People!"

He echoed those comments on CNBC Monday morning.

Trump's statements on TikTok are a reversal of his previous position on the video-sharing app's future. As president, he said it should be sold to a US company, with some proceeds going to the US Treasury.

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He made his change of heart on TikTok public after meeting with Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor, in February. Yass' company, Susquehanna International Group, has a 15% stake in ByteDance, which is TikTok's parent company. According to Politico, Trump praised the investor at a Club for Growth retreat at The Breakers resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

In his interview with CNBC on Monday, Trump denied talking to Yass about TikTok.

"No, I didn't," Trump said, adding he only spoke with Yass briefly. "He never mentioned TikTok."

But The New York Times reported on Monday that a "person close to the campaign" said they expect Yass to make a "significant donation" to a Trump-aligned group.

Yass, a former professional gambler who cofounded the Susquehanna International Group, donated $10 million to the Republican-leaning Club for Growth in 2023, as the group searched for a replacement for Trump on the GOP ticket. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Yass — who rarely speaks to the media — firmly disagrees with the former president's assertion that the 2020 election was rigged or "stolen."

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Though TikTok and its parent company have been scrutinized recently for their data-collection practices, previous efforts by the Trump administration to ban the app failed in the court system. On March 5, a bipartisan group of representatives in Congress introduced a bill that would force ByteDance to sell TikTok or have the app banned in the US. Biden has said he'd sign the legislation if brought to his desk.

Club for Growth, to which Yass has donated more than $60 million since 2010, has tapped Kellyanne Conway, a former advisor to Trump, to advocate against the TikTok bill, Politico reported on Saturday.

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