Trump says Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch ‘probably’ in the TikTok buyer group
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The news: Donald Trump said Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch are likely to be part of a group of potential buyers to keep TikTok running in the United States.
What they said: In an interview taped Friday and aired on Fox News’ The Sunday Briefing, Trump also named Oracle executive chairman Larry Ellison and Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell as involved in the deal.
“I hate to tell you this, but a man named Lachlan is involved. Do you know who Lachlan is?” Trump asked his interviewer. “That’s a very unusual name, Lachlan Murdoch. And Rupert is probably going to be in the group. I think they’re going to be in the group.”
He added the group includes “really great people, very prominent people” who are “American patriots.”
The context: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Saturday said the deal, which still needs to be signed, means TikTok will be “majority-owned by Americans in the United States,” with six Americans on the company’s seven-seat board.
The deal was finalised in a phone call between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Data and privacy would be controlled by Oracle, and the app’s algorithm would be “controlled by America as well,” Leavitt said, adding TikTok’s “algorithm will also be controlled by America.”
Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone on Friday, with Trump saying the deal “is well on its way,” while China said only that both sides support efforts to reach a “proper deal on TikTok.”
The proposed agreement comes after a 2024 law required ByteDance to divest from TikTok or face a US ban, a deadline the Trump administration has extended several times.
