Trump moves to create sovereign wealth fund that may buy TikTok

Washington — US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday ordering the US treasury and commerce departments to create a sovereign wealth fund and said it may purchase TikTok.

“We’re going to stand this thing up within the next 12 months. We’re going to monetise the asset side of the US balance sheet for the American people,” treasury secretary Scott Bessent told reporters.

“There’ll be a combination of liquid assets, assets that we have in this country as we work to bring them out for the American people.”

Trump had previously floated such a government investment vehicle as a presidential candidate, saying it could fund “great national endeavours” like infrastructure projects such as highways and airports, manufacturing and medical research.

Details on how exactly the fund would operate and be financed were not immediately available, but Trump previously said it could be funded by “tariffs and other intelligent things”.

Typically such funds rely on a country’s budget surplus to make investments, but the US operates at a deficit.

There are over 90 such funds across the world managing over $8-trillion in assets, according to the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds.

TikTok, which has about 170-million American users, was briefly taken offline just before a law requiring its Chinese owner ByteDance to either sell it on national security grounds or face a ban took effect on January 19.

Trump, after taking office on January 20, signed an executive order seeking to delay by 75 days the enforcement of the law.

Trump has said that he was in talks with multiple people over TikTok’s purchase and would likely have a decision on the popular app’s future in February.

Reuters