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

abcnews.go.com:

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 the company an American ...

WASHINGTON — 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 a 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