Could Musk be paying Trump to keep TicTok from going dark so that Musk can get X access to China?
“I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture. By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to say up,”
Musk, who is close to Trump, says that he disagreed with the TikTok ban would like to see China unban Twitter/X from their country.
China likes Musk. Could it be that they find something favorable about Musk that they believe will help them accomplish their goals?
For China, selling to Musk could mean placing TikTok in the hands of an ally, someone whose business empire is deeply reliant on the Chinese market and who has the ear of incoming President Trump at a time when China will be looking for leverage in tariff negotiations.
For Musk, acquiring TikTok and preserving Americans’ access to the app at the last second after TikTok fought the ban on First Amendment grounds would play directly into the billionaire’s (often hypocritical) image of himself as a defender of free speech. It would give him control over an even larger and more influential social media platform than X, which he has already successfully used to boost his own interests, including aiding the reelection of Donald Trump. And Musk already has a team — however small it might be — at X familiar with managing a social media algorithm and ad sales.
Wemight be hearing rumblings about it now to see how people feel about it.
