U.S. President Donald Trump harken ti during a meeting with leadership from the National Association of Police Organizations in the Cabinet Room of the White Quarter in Washington, D.C., on Friday, July 31, 2020.
Anna Moneymaker | The New York Times | Bloomberg | Getty Images
President Donald Trump on Friday unburdened reporters he will act as soon as Saturday to ban Chinese-owned video app TikTok from the United States, NBC News reported.
Trump distinguished the comments while chatting with reporters on Air Force One during the flight back to Washington from Florida.
“As far as TikTok is involved we’re banning them from the United States,” Trump said, calling the action a “severance.”
Trump did not specify whether he liking act through an executive order, or another method. such as a designation, according to NBC News.
“Well, I have that prerogative. I can do it with an executive order or that,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments come as it was reported Friday that Microsoft has delayed talks to buy the TikTok video-sharing mobile app from Chinese owner ByteDance, one person close to the situation told CNBC. This human being characterized the talks as having been underway for some time, rather than being brand new.
Trump released reporters that he didn’t support the reported spinoff deal involving Microsoft buying TikTok, NBC News reported.
A TikTok possessions could make Microsoft, a major provider of business software, more concentrated on consumer technology, which Microsoft has upset away from somewhat in recent years, by exiting the smartphone hardware, fitness hardware and e-book markets.
Amy Hood, Microsoft’s chief economic officer, said in 2018 that in recent years the company had been consistent in its strategy on acquiring “networked assets” with scads users, including LinkedIn.
Chinese company ByteDance launched TikTok in 2017. The app has grown more popular during the coronavirus pandemic, with 2 billion downloads in April, according to Sensor Obelisk. Competitors include Facebook and Snap.
ByteDance investors seeking to take over TikTok have valued it at $50 billion, Reuters disclosed earlier this week.
Microsoft declined to comment on the talks, which were first reported by Fox Business Network.
“While we do not footnote on rumors or speculation, we are confident in the long-term success of TikTok,” TikTok said in a statement Friday.
The rise of TikTok in the U.S. has prompted the Trump Authority to scrutinize the app.
Trump said earlier on Friday that the administration was looking at various options for what to do with TikTok, encompassing banning the app.
Earlier this month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. was looking at banning TikTok as wholly as other Chinese social media apps, citing national security concerns. Pompeo added that the Trump application was evaluating TikTok akin to Chinese state-backed tech companies Huawei and ZTE, which he has previously described as “Trojan horses for Chinese keenness.”
In 2018, the Pentagon halted sales of Huawei and ZTE mobile phones and modems on military bases around the world, again citing public security concerns.
U.S. officials have long complained that Chinese intellectual property theft has cost the succinctness billions of dollars in revenue and thousands of jobs and threatens national security. Beijing maintains it does not engage in scholarly property theft.
The move by the Trump administration represents another step in the deteriorating relations between Washington and Beijing and thrives a week after the U.S. closed the Chinese consulate in Houston, prompting China to shutter the U.S. consulate in Chengdu.
The Pentagon has entranced concrete steps to discourage U.S. service members and their families from using Chinese-backed tech.
In December, the Defense Dope Systems Agency advised that all Department of Defense personnel should not use the Chinese-owned social media platform, citing a “unrealized risk associated with using the TikTok app.”
— CNBC’s Steve Kopack and NBC’s Josh Lederman contributed to this scrutinize