For more than a year, Donald Trump’s Republican-majority, rubber-stamp Congress has threatened to ban the TikTok app in the United States unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sold its U.S. operations to American investors.

And since that law was passed in April 2024, Trump has granted extensions each time the deadline neared without a sale having been finalized. Because that’s what he does when he doesn’t get his way: he refuses to give up on what he wants. And what he wants in this case is not to ban TikTok’s U.S. operation, but to own it.

His justification for these actions is a not-irrational concern that Beijing might access the personal data of the app’s 170 million American users. And if anyone is going to have access to that information, it’s going to be Donald Trump, not Xi Jinping.

So, when Trump said in a Fox News interview yesterday that he had spoken to Xi earlier in the week and that they were making good progress on a deal, it was not big news. But when he revealed the names of the probable investors involved, there were a couple of major surprises.

He told Fox’s The Sunday Briefing that “they’re very well-known people” who would be able to raise a “tremendous amount” of money. Then he named Oracle head Larry Ellison — currently the world’s richest or second-richest man, depending on how his and Elon Musk’s respective fortunes are doing at any given moment. And there was also Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Technologies (whose net worth is estimated at a meager $140 billion). [Ben Hatton, BBC, September 21, 2025.]

So yes, they certainly could be expected to raise a significant amount of money.

But the surprise came when Trump added:

“I hate to tell you this, but a man named Lachlan is involved. Do you know who Lachlan is? And Rupert is probably going to be in the group.” [Id.]

So, do you know who Lachlan and Rupert are? I do. They’re the Murdochs — son and father, respectively — who collectively own Fox Corp. and News Corp.: a media empire that includes, in addition to the Fox conglomerate, the likes of The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, The Times (UK), HarperCollins Publishing, and Dow Jones & Company digital media.

And now — despite the fact that Trump is suing The Wall Street Journal over articles published about the Jeffrey Epstein scandal that shine an unflattering light on Trump’s past association with Epstein — the Murdochs’ Fox Corp. might add to their holdings a part ownership in TikTok.

All of these potential investors are, of course, right-wing Republicans and close associates of Donald Trump. So, while neither Trump nor (presumably) any member of his family would actually be involved in the deal, consummation of the transaction would be one more giant step along Trump’s march toward control of the country’s media.

And what does the Chinese side have to say about it? According to official state news agency Xinhua, President Xi has said that Beijing “welcomes negotiations.” And the Chinese Commerce Ministry issued the following statement:

“China’s position on TikTok is clear: The Chinese government respects the wishes of the enterprise, and welcomes it to carry out commercial negotiations in accordance with market rules to reach a solution compliant with China’s laws and regulations, and strikes a balance of interests.” [Id.]

In other words, all of the recent talks between Trump and Xi seem to have led to some sort of tit-for-tat arrangement. It’s not yet known what may have been promised to China; but it is apparent that TikTok — or at least its U.S. operation — is about to be passed from one repressive master to another.

And once again, the billionaires win, while the American public loses.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/22/25