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Trump orders creation of US sovereign wealth fund, says it could own part of TikTok

Trump orders creation of US sovereign wealth fund, says it could own part of TikTok
Next, this is an executive order discharges your Secretary of the Treasury, uh, Scott Besant and your Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, uh, to begin *** process that will hopefully result in the creation of an American sovereign wealth fund. It's *** very exciting event. Uh, we're gonna have *** sovereign wealth fund which we've never had. We have *** lot of things that create wealth and you've seen that over the last two weeks. I think we've created more wealth. Other people have created the wealth, the people, my predecessors, we're creating *** lot of wealth. Uh, Scott, maybe you'd like to say something about it and I'd ask also Howard to say something about it. Yes sir, this is very exciting. We're going to stand this thing up within the next 12 months. We're going to monetize the asset side of the US balance sheet for the American people. We're going to put the asset. To work and I think it's going to be very exciting. We're going to study best practices that's done around the world. It'll be *** combination of liquid assets, assets that we have in this country as we work to bring them out for the American people. The extraordinary size and scale of the US government and the business it does with companies. Uh, should create value for American citizens. If we are going to buy 2 billion COVID vaccines, maybe we should have some warrants and some equity in these companies and have that grow for the help of the American people. So I bringing all these things together, I think we'll create Scott and I will create an amazing sovereign wealth fund for you, sir. So other countries have sovereign wealth funds and they're much smaller countries and they're not the United States. We have tremendous potential in this country, tremendous. You're seeing that what's happened just in *** short period of time. And as an example, TikTok, we're gonna be doing something perhaps with TikTok and perhaps not if we make the right deal we'll do it otherwise we won't but I have the right to do that and we might put that in the sovereign wealth fund whatever we make or if we do *** partnership with uh very wealthy people, *** lot of options, but we could put that as an example in the fund and we have *** lot of other things that we could put in the fund and. I think in *** short period of time we'd have one of the biggest funds and you know, some of, some of them are pretty large, I must tell you, some of the like the Saudi Arabia fund is, is on the large side. But eventually we'll catch it, but we're gonna, uh, create *** lot of wealth for the fund, and I think it's about time that this country had *** sovereign wealth fund, and these two gentlemen and some others are gonna work with them very closely, and they'll be heading it up and they're gonna do *** great job, two highly respected people that have done unbelievably well in the world, in the real world.
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Trump orders creation of US sovereign wealth fund, says it could own part of TikTok
President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order directing the U.S. to take steps to start developing a government-owned investment fund that he said could be used to profit off of TikTok if he's successful at finding it an American buyer.Trump signed an order on his first day office to grant the Chinese-owned TikTok until early April to find a domestic partner or buyer, but he's said he's looking for the U.S. to take a 50% stake in the massive social media platform. He said Monday in the Oval Office that TikTok was an example of what he could put in a new U.S. sovereign wealth fund.“We might put that in the sovereign wealth fund, whatever we make or we do a partnership with very wealthy people, a lot of options,” he said of TikTok. “But we could put that as an example in the fund. We have a lot of other things that we could put in the fund.”Trump noted many other nations have such investment funds and predicted that the U.S. could eventually top Saudi Arabia's fund size. “Eventually we'll catch it," he promised.Trump put Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in charge of laying the groundwork for creating the fund, which would likely require congressional approval.Former President Joe Biden's administration had studied the possibility of creating a sovereign wealth fund for national security investments, but the idea did not yield any concrete action before he left office last month.Bessent said the administration's goal was to open the fund within the next 12 months, and Lutnick said another use of the fund could have been for the government to take a profit-earning stake in vaccine manufacturers.“The extraordinary size and scale of the U.S. government and the business it does with companies should create value for American citizens,” Lutnick told reporters.

President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order directing the U.S. to take steps to start developing a government-owned investment fund that he said could be used to profit off of TikTok if he's successful at finding it an American buyer.

Trump signed an order on his first day office to grant the Chinese-owned TikTok until early April to find a domestic partner or buyer, but he's said he's looking for the U.S. to take a 50% stake in the massive social media platform. He said Monday in the Oval Office that TikTok was an example of what he could put in a new U.S. sovereign wealth fund.

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“We might put that in the sovereign wealth fund, whatever we make or we do a partnership with very wealthy people, a lot of options,” he said of TikTok. “But we could put that as an example in the fund. We have a lot of other things that we could put in the fund.”

Trump noted many other nations have such investment funds and predicted that the U.S. could eventually top Saudi Arabia's fund size. “Eventually we'll catch it," he promised.

Trump put Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in charge of laying the groundwork for creating the fund, which would likely require congressional approval.

Former President Joe Biden's administration had studied the possibility of creating a sovereign wealth fund for national security investments, but the idea did not yield any concrete action before he left office last month.

Bessent said the administration's goal was to open the fund within the next 12 months, and Lutnick said another use of the fund could have been for the government to take a profit-earning stake in vaccine manufacturers.

“The extraordinary size and scale of the U.S. government and the business it does with companies should create value for American citizens,” Lutnick told reporters.