WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday signed an government order directing the U.S. to take steps to start out growing a government-owned funding fund that he stated might be used to revenue off of TikTok if he is profitable at discovering it an American purchaser.
Trump signed an order on his first day workplace to grant the Chinese language-owned TikTok till early April to discover a home accomplice or purchaser, however he is stated he is searching for the U.S. to take a 50% stake within the huge social media platform. He stated Monday within the Oval Workplace that TikTok was an instance of what he may put in a brand new U.S. sovereign wealth fund.
“We’d put that within the sovereign wealth fund, no matter we make or we do a partnership with very rich individuals, numerous choices,” he stated of TikTok. “However we may put that for instance within the fund. We now have numerous different issues that we may put within the fund.”
Trump famous many different nations have such funding funds and predicted that the U.S. may ultimately high Saudi Arabia’s fund measurement. “Ultimately we’ll catch it,” he promised.
Trump put Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in control of laying the groundwork for making a the fund, which might doubtless require congressional approval.
Former President Joe Biden’s administration had studied the potential for making a sovereign wealth fund for nationwide safety investments, however the thought didn’t yield any concrete motion earlier than he left workplace final month.
Bessent stated the administration’s purpose was to have the fund open throughout the subsequent 12 months, and Lutnick stated one other use of the fund may have been for the federal government to take an profit-earning stake in vaccine producers.
“The extraordinary measurement and scale of the usgovernment and the enterprise it does with corporations ought to create worth for Americans,” Lutnick instructed reporters.