Trump says the sovereign wealth fund could buy Tiktok

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has taken the first step to establish a sovereign wealth fund for the United States, and suggested that he could end up buying Tiktok.

The president signed an executive order on Monday, to initiate the process, saying that the fund would soon be “one of the greatest.”

More than 90 countries have sovereign funds of wealth, investing surplus income for the benefit of future generations. However, the United States currently has a budget deficit.

“We are going to create a lot of wealth for the background,” Trump told reporters, without clarifying where the money would come from.

When Trump first floated the idea of ​​a sovereign wealth fund during his electoral campaign, he suggested that it could be financed by “rates and other intelligent things.”

He has already announced plans to impose tariffs on imports from the three largest commercial partners in the United States: China, Mexico and Canada.

But on Tuesday, taxes in Mexico and Canada stopped for 30 days.

The United States Treasury Secretary Scott Besent said the fund would be established in the next 12 months and that the plan was currently monetizing assets owned by the United States government “for the US people.”

Saudi and Norway Arabia have two of the largest sovereign wealth funds, backed by the income of fossil fuel sales. They invest in companies and projects worldwide.

President Trump has previously said that a sovereign wealth fund of the United States would finance “great national efforts”, including infrastructure projects such as airports, roads and medical research.

After signing the executive order for the creation of the Fund, the idea that I could buy the Tiktok social networks platform also floated.

The Chinese property social media company briefly disconnected in the United States last month, due to national security concerns, after the previous administration ordered its owner to sell their US operations. Or in front of a prohibition.

Trump has delayed the ban, promising to find a solution, after American users of Tiktok protested their closure.

“We are going to do something, maybe with Tiktok, and maybe not,” Trump said. “If we make the right deal, we will do it. Otherwise, no … we could put that in the sovereign background of wealth.”

However, the president also recently said that the Microsoft technology giant was in conversations to acquire Tiktok and that he would like to see a “bidding war” on the sale of the application of social networks.

Other big names in technology, including Larry Ellison and Elon Musk, have also been floated as possible buyers.