https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YtxfJyTSR0
President Trump said Monday that TikTok will be shut down in the U.S. if it hasn't been bought by Microsoft or another company by Sept. 15, and argued — without elaborating — that the U.S. Treasury should get "a very substantial portion" of the sale fee.
https://www.axios.com/trump-tiktok-banned-microsoft-fd45748d-1ee8-4f4a-812a-09ec76d6f8e2.html
Trump appeared to suggest on Monday that Microsoft would have to pay the U.S. government in order to complete the deal, but did not explain the precedent for such an action. He also argued that Microsoft should buy all of TikTok, not just 30% of the company.
• "I don't mind if, whether it's Microsoft or somebody else, a big company, a secure company, a very American company, buy it. It's probably easier to buy the whole thing than to buy 30% of it. How do you do 30%? Who's going to get the name? The name is hot, the brand is hot," Trump said.
• "A very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the Treasury of the United States. Because we're making it possible for this deal to happen. Right now they don't have any rights, unless we give it to them. So if we're going to give them the rights, it has to come into this country. It's a little bit like the landlord/tenant," he added.
Commentators are pointing out that this type of financial arrangement is more commonly known as extortion.
