President Donald Trump said prominent billionaires – including media moguls Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch and tech founder Michael Dell – could be part of a deal in which the US will take control of the social video platform TikTok.
Trump namedropped the 94-year-old Murdoch and his son, the head of Fox News and News Corp, as part of a group of possible participants in a deal during an interview recorded Friday and aired Sunday on Fox News.
Lachlan Murdoch, Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch have had a complicated relationship.Credit: Illustration by Matt Willis
“I hate to tell you this, but a man named Lachlan is involved. Lachlan is, that’s a very unusual name, Lachlan Murdoch,” Trump said. “And Rupert is probably going to be in the group. I think they’re going to be in the group.”
“A couple of others. Really great people, very prominent people,” Trump said. “And they’re also American patriots, you know, they love this country. I think they’re going to do a really good job.”
Trump’s disclosure of the potential involvement of the Murdochs and Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, is the latest twist in a fast-moving potential deal to keep TikTok operating in the US
Trump also said on Sunday that tech giant Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison was part of the same group. His involvement had been previously disclosed. On Saturday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Oracle would be responsible for the app’s data and security and that Americans will control six of the seven seats for a planned board.
Much is unknown about how the deal will be constructed. Credit: Bloomberg
Much is still unknown about the actual deal in the works. Trump discussed the TikTok deal with China’s Xi Jinping in a lengthy phone call on Friday. Chinese and US officials have until Dec. 16 to hash out the details, following the latest deadline extension by the Trump administration.
TikTok is a hugely popular app currently owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance. American officials have warned the algorithm TikTok uses to shape what users see is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to push content on the platform in a way that’s difficult to detect.
