US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would be supportive of the world's richest man and his close aide, Elon Musk, buying TikTok "if he wanted to". Trump was asked if he would be open to the billionaire founder of Tesla buying the short-video platform facing a nationwide ban in the US after the Supreme Court last week upheld a law requiring TikTok to sever ties with its Chinese parent ByteDance.

Here’s another bright idea from President Donald Trump. He just expressed openness to the idea of either Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison purchasing TikTok, a move that could have significant implications for the app’s future in the United States.

ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is required to sell the app to a U.S.-based buyer or face a nationwide ban.

As the Jan. 19 date for a TikTok ban approaches, another name is emerging as a potential buyer: SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who already owns X.

I met with the owners of Tiktok, the big owners, it’s worthless if it doesn’t get a permit,” Trump said. “It’s worth like a trillion dollars.”

After years of rejecting the idea of a sale of TikTok’s US assets to an American buyer in order to avert a ban, China and ByteDance may have found an owner they could live with: Elon Musk.

Could Elon Musk save TikTok in the US? China weighs option to sell the controversial TikTok social media app's US operations ahead of looming ban

The president said he’s also open to another tech giant to acquire TikTok: Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle. Ellison was present at the White House for a $500 billion AI infrastructure partnership between the Trump administration and OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle. Oracle, a software company, houses most of TikTok's servers

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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he was open to billionaire Elon Musk buying social media app TikTok if the Tesla CEO wanted to do so.

President Donald Trump has said he’s open to the possibility of either Tesla boss and “first buddy” Elon Musk or Oracle chief Larry Ellison buying TikTok.