Washington: US President Donald Trump has signed an executive decree for the creation of a new investment fund belonging to the government, which could potentially buy the Tiktok popular video application.
With this decision, announced on Monday, Trump asked the services of the American Treasury and Trade to create the fund.
“We are going to establish this in the next 12 months. We will monetize the active side of the American balance sheet for the American people,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to journalists. “There will be a combination of liquid assets and assets that we have in this country while we work to get them out for the American people.”
Trump had previously launched the idea of such a government investment vehicle as a presidential candidate, saying that he could finance “great national efforts” such as infrastructure projects, including highways and airports, manufacturing and medical research.
The details on how the fund would work and financed were not immediately available, but Trump had previously suggested that he could be funded by “tariffs and other smart things”. As a rule, such funds depend on the budgetary surplus of a country to make investments, but the United States operated on a deficit.
There are more than 90 funds worldwide managing more than 8 dollars of assets, according to the International Forum of Sovereign Funds.
Tiktok, which has around 170 million American users, was briefly put off online just before a law forcing its Chinese owner, Bytedance, to sell it for national security grounds or to face a ban on January 19 .
After taking office on January 20, Trump signed an executive decree aimed at delaying the application of the law of 75 days.
Trump said he was in talks with several parties on the purchase of Tiktok and that he is likely to make a decision on the future of the popular app in February.