Donald Trump was recently asked if his friends being touted among the consortium of businessmen expected to buy TikTok would affect his sway on the app. Trump responded that if he had it his way he’d make the app “100% MAGA.”
The TikTok ban was a bipartisan decision that came about due to the app being suspected as a data-harvesting tool and a growing influence arm of the Chinese government. However, by the time the ban came into effect, Americans had already found more personal uses for the platform and there was a very vocal campaign for the president to stop it. After successive extensions to the ban deadline, it seems U.S. buyers were finally found to oversee exactly what the Chinese government can access from U.S. citizens.
People reports that under the terms of the new deal preventing the closure of the app, ByteDance — the parent company that owns TikTok — will sell more than 80% of TikTok U.S. to specific U.S. investors. Trump thanked his sometimes adversary, sometimes friend, Chinese president Xi Jinping for letting the deal go through. And while it’s still not public knowledge which American investors specifically will be involved, Trump mentioned a few names: Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, and the Murdoch family.
These are, of course, very close Trump allies. Fox News (founded by the Murdochs) and the tech industry have both been very receptive to Trump’s second term. When asked whether this new deal will make the app more MAGA-friendly, Trump welcomed the idea. The president told reporters at the White House, “I always like MAGA-related, if I could, I’d make it 100% MAGA.”
The reporters then laughed, and Trump walked back his statement, adding, “it’s not gonna work out that way, unfortunately. Everyone’s gonna be treated fairly. Every group, every philosophy, every policy will be treated very fairly.”
That was a rare moment of Trump appearing receptive to ideologies critical of him. Yet the Jimmy Kimmel incident is still fresh in the memory of the president’s critics, who recall how he will stop at nothing to silence dissent — and the alleged complicity of regulatory heads who target people for saying things Trump doesn’t like. Senator Elizabeth Warren has already warned that this is another instance of Trump handing even more control to his “billionaire buddies.”
So perhaps the worry is not the algorithm. Perhaps Trump is telling the truth about that. But his close allies being in charge of TikTok U.S. raises another concern. What happens if he doesn’t like an influential TikTok account that criticizes him? Would he — despite suing YouTube, Meta, and Twitter for banning his account for inciting an insurrection — also push for their ban?
Trump’s hypocrisy has been highlighted in so many other instances that it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility. However, his stated commitment not to tip the scales of opinions that get pushed by the algorithms is commendable. Hopefully, he keeps his word even when it’s not convenient.
Published: Oct 1, 2025 04:11 pm