Billionaire Frank McCourt is open to a 50% share of TikTok after Trump comments Musk, who is also CEO of SpaceX and owner of social media app X, was one of Trump's top financial backers in the campaign and is positioned to wield major influence in the administration. Ellison is a longtime Trump supporter, and Oracle is TikTok's cloud infrastructure provider in the U.S. "What I'm thinking about saying to somebody is, buy it and give half to the United States of America," Trump said. "And we'll give you the permit.'" Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly Chicago Catch-Up newsletter. Trump said ByteDance would have "the ultimate partner" in the U.S. which would "make it very worthwhile for them in terms of the permits and everything else." Trump's views on TikTok have shifted radically since his first term. In 2020, Trump signed an executive order to ban the app. A federal court viewed his effort as "arbitrary and capricious," and blocked him. He began to speak more favorably of TikTok after he met in February with billionaire Republican megadonor Jeff Yass, a major ByteDance investor who also owns a stake in the owner of Truth Social, Trump's social media app. TikTok CEO Shou Chew attended Trump's inauguration in Washington, D.C., on Monday. ByteDance has not indicated whether it will sell TikTok, but the Chinese government has reportedly considered a plan that would involve Musk acquiring the operations. Musk didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Oracle and TikTok representatives also didn't provide an immediate comment.