Donald Trump believes the US government should get a huge lump sum from TikTok's Microsoft deal.
Donald Trump
After the Seattle firm confirmed they are in talks to buy the Chinese-owned video app, the President the Treasury should benefit from a "substantial portion" of the money made from a sale of the social media platform if it's sold to a US firm.
Trump is planning to ban the app, which is currently owned by China's ByteDance, on September 15, if it's not sold by then.
Trump has accused TikTok of giving the Chinese government private data.
And now he's said: "The United States should get a very large percentage of that price, because we're making it possible.
"It would come from the sale, which nobody else would be thinking about but me, but that's the way I think, and I think it's very fair."
The world leader had said that TikTok's US operations "will close down on September 15 unless Microsoft or somebody else is able to buy it and work out a deal, an appropriate deal so the Treasury ... of the United States gets a lot of money."
TikTok has profusely denied the app is a threat.
Meanwhile, TikTok reportedly pressed pause on talks to have their HQ outside of China in London.
Their Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, had been in negations with the Department for International Trade and Downing Street officials to create new jobs at the firm in the UK.
However, as recently reported by The Guardian, it's now believed around 3,000 jobs could be lost after executives claimed "wider geopolitical context" is to blame for halting the plans for a UK HQ in the British capital after the country banned Huawei from being part of its 5G mobile network.
It's also claimed that TikTok is now looking at Dublin in Ireland instead of London to build its base outside of China - where they already have some staff.
The firm - which has a new CEO in ex-Disney chairman Kevin Meyer - no longer operates in Hong Kong, after the national security law was placed in the power of the Chinese government.
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