You’ll Never Guess Why Trump Now Supports TikTok (Actually, You Will)
Donald Trump has pulled an about-face in recent days about banning TikTok. And we may now know the reason why: A certain Republican billionaire megadonor is an investor in both TikTok’s parent company and the shell company that just merged with the former president’s media company.
Trump briefly met Jeff Yass, a Wall Street financier, in February as Trump sought to court wealthy donors for his presidential campaign (and his rising legal debts). Yass’s trading firm Susquehanna International Group is a major shareholder in TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. Within just a few weeks, despite having spent a good chunk of his presidency railing about the national security risks TikTok poses, Trump suddenly changed his tune on the popular video-sharing app.
“I could have banned TikTok. I had it banned just about, I could have got that done,” Trump told CNBC in early March. “I sort of said [to Congress], ‘You guys decide, you make that decision.’ Because it’s a tough decision to make.”
“We have to very much go into privacy and make sure that we are protecting the American people’s privacy and data rights,” he said. “But, you know, we also have that problem with other, you have that problem with Facebook and lots of other companies too.”
At the time, Trump said he had not discussed TikTok with Yass and was more concerned with preventing Facebook from getting too powerful.
Still, Trump was very likely trying to curry Yass’s favor. A person close to Trump’s campaign anonymously told The New York Times they expected Yass to make a large donation to a group backing Trump’s current presidential bid. Yass, for his part, said he had never donated to Trump and did not intend to do so.
Yass may have already saved Trump another way, though. Susquehanna owns about 2 percent of the group Digital World Acquisition Corporation, according to a December regulatory filing, the Times reported Monday. DWAC merged Friday with Trump Media & Technology Group, pulling it back from the brink of running out of cash.
It’s unclear if Susquehanna still owns those shares because Susquehanna, like other major investors, only discloses its holdings periodically. But if it still holds a stake in DWAC, then Yass’s company is one of Trump Media’s bigger shareholders. Susquehanna would hold about 605,000 shares, worth about $22 million.
The merger comes as Trump stares down millions of dollars in legal fines and fees. Under the merger deal, Trump is prohibited from selling any of his shares or using them as collateral for a loan for six months, but he can ask the new merged board to waive that rule for him. Even if the board agrees, though, it’s unclear whether selling shares will be profitable enough for Trump’s many legal bills.
Congress, meanwhile, is poised to pass a bill banning TikTok. President Joe Biden—who is currently campaigning on TikTok—has promised to sign the measure if it reaches his desk.
Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has revealed that he is building an investor group to buy TikTok, which could put a major resource for young people in the hands of one of Trump’s allies.