Wyoming entrepreneur Reid Rasner has offered himself as the most “Trumpian” and least influenced by China buyers to offer a bid for the social media platform TikTok.
Lawmakers have long opposed TikTok’s algorithm because the app’s parent company, ByteDance, has ties to the Chinese Communist Party. While the TikTok ban went into effect as expected on Jan. 19, hours after the app stopped service in the U.S., Trump gave the company a new deadline of April 5 to divest.
Now, Rasner has entered the ring with a $47.5 billion offer, which is reportedly the highest so far. The media CEO claimed that President Donald Trump himself saw the offer before TikTok received it. Trump has since shared the news of the offer on his Truth Social account.
“We are the most Trumpian offer out there. As far as we’re concerned, China can suck it. We’re going to bring TikTok to America. It is going to be American-owned. We have not only the strongest offer but the cleanest offer for this administration. Let me be really clear about the other billionaires who have put offers out there: They have close ties to China. They do a lot of work with China currently,” Rasner said on Fox News’s The Faulkner Focus. “Our offer is 100% American-owned, protects their data. And for the first time ever we are going to monetize that data and profit share it back to the user so you will be paid just having the app on your phone.”
Rasner promised that should his deal go through, the app would remain free to use, and he would remove any censorship policies for using the app. Stringent rules on TikTok prevent users from using a long list of words that are considered hate speech or promoting drug use or self-harm to the point that TikTok will stop a live stream on its platform if certain words are used.
The Washington Examiner reached out to TikTok for comment.
Trump has continued to pressure ByteDance to agree to a deal when he made the suggestion last week that he would offer “a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done.” China filed a lawsuit against the United States with the World Trade Organization over recently imposed tariffs set to start Wednesday and issued its own reciprocal 10% tariff on U.S. goods.
TRUMP TEASES REDUCTION IN CHINESE TARIFFS AS PART OF TIKTOK DEAL
TikTok hadn’t pursued divestiture when then-President Joe Biden signed the ban into law, and it opted to challenge the ban legally. However, the Supreme Court ruled the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act did not violate the platform’s First Amendment rights. Trump has supported TikTok ever since he gained over 15.2 million followers to his TikTok account that he launched while campaigning for his second term.
Even though TikTok’s ban extension deadline is approaching, Trump claimed he would simply extend the deadline if a deal hasn’t been done by Saturday.