Following Trump's claim he could ban Tik Tok in the U.S. by executive order, Microsoft, which has signaled its interest in buying the Chinese social media site, reports that it has his personal permission to proceed with the deal.
Following a conversation between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and President Donald J. Trump, Microsoft is prepared to continue discussions to explore a purchase of TikTok in the United States.
Microsoft fully appreciates the importance of addressing the President's concerns. It is committed to acquiring TikTok subject to a complete security review and providing proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury.
Microsoft will move quickly to pursue discussions with TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, in a matter of weeks, and in any event completing these discussions no later than September 15, 2020. During this process, Microsoft looks forward to continuing dialogue with the United States Government, including with the President.
Such a nice example of how Trump "wins". He threatens a blatantly unconstitutional and illegal course of action, everyone argues about it in a way that inchingly normalizes how he might it done, then it turns out the whole thing was just a head game, an unsolicited favor to a domestic company that then must publicly supplicate to him to seal the deal, setting a precedent for all future deals.
