Former President Donald Trump disclosed Monday that Microsoft was in talks to buy TikTok, just after the app experienced a brief outage last week. He stated that he would welcome a competitive bidding process to acquire the popular platform, which holds 170 million American users.
Trump had earlier said that he was discussing the possible sale of TikTok with several parties and expected a decision on the app’s future within 30 days. The app went dark for a short period on January 19, a day before a law that would force the parent company of TikTok, ByteDance, to sell the app or face a ban, was to come into effect. However, upon taking office on January 20, Trump signed an executive order putting off the enforcement of the law by 75 days.
The move, said to be on the basis that the application, TikTok, mishandled its user data, thus posing a threat to national security, is one in which, the former President said that his administration sought to create an opportunity for the application’s sale, of which there have been multiple interested buyers.
In his address, Trump also staunchly defended his executive orders and now-infamous policies, among them stopping birthright citizenship. But the White House relented on one of its long-held stances: this time on sanctions against Colombia. President Gustavo Petro agreed to accept deportations of Colombian migrants using U.S. military aircraft.
Donald Trump’s week on staffing his administration was also highlighted by the confirmation of several important Cabinet members during the Senate hearing, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. He will, however, soon grill some of his controversial nominees on the Senate floors, including RFK Jr., Kash Patel, and Tulsi Gabbard.
Besides, Acting Attorney General James McHenry fired those at the Justice Department known to be associated with special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating Trump’s alleged misdemeanor. That has proven to be quite a dramatic week for Trump, who remains working on realizing his vision.
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