Technically, Donald Trump is not for sale, though only because he is owned by President Musk. Yet to be fair, before Musk, another plutocrat owned a little piece of Mr. Trump. You may have heard of Jeff Yass
Cofounder of investment company and trading firm Susquehanna International Group, Yass has an estimated net worth just shy of $50 billion. Much of the Pennsylvania-based billionaire’s wealth is tied up in no other than TikTok, as Forbes reports that Susquehanna’s most valuable holding is ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company. Susquehanna holds a 15% stake in ByteDance, a source “familiar with the investment,” told the New York Times. And Yass himself owns 7%....
Yass started funneling money into the 2024 election early; at one point in March he was the biggest donor to outside spending groups. He, alongside wife Janine Yass, were No. 6 in top contributors to the election, contributing in total more than $96 million to Republican causes, per nonprofit tracker of campaign lobbying Open Secrets.
The mega-donor might be somewhat connected to Trump's invitation to conservative PAC Club for Growth’s retreat in Breakers this past year, Bloomberg suggests in a recent article. In 2023, Trump wasn’t invited to said event. Yass, who has donated more than $60 million to Club for Growth since 2016, found an ally in Trump.
Not long after the event in Breakers, Trump publicly changed his stance on TikTok, Bloomberg notes. “If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” Trump posted to Truth Social. “I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!”
Under terms of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Act passed by Congress (and later upheld by the Supreme Court), TikTok was to have been banned in the USA as of January 19 unless sold to a US buyer(s). No deal was made and on January 21, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Attorney General not to enforce the law for 75 days while an American buyer might be found.
So as of now, American youth and juveniles at heart still are enjoying the application owned by a Chinese company, which exists at the pleasure of the Chinese government and turns over to it any and all information "requested." That pleases President Trump, and not only because he's aware of the tens of millions of Americans, a few of whom even vote, who regularly use the app. It's also because of Jeff Yass, the Club for Greed, and Elon Musk, prompting the sober observation of Amy Klobuchar and others that this President is always up for sale to the highest bidder.
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