Billionaire Jeffrey S. Yass, who has donated US$46 million to Trump's party, holds a 15% stake in ByteDance, the company behind the globally popular app TikTok.
Questions have been raised about Yass's financial ties to ByteDance and their potential influence on TikTok's operations and policies, particularly amid U.S. lawmakers' scrutiny of the platform.
Interestingly, Trump's stance on TikTok softened in a March 7th post on Truth Social, with his focus shifting toward criticizing Facebook instead.
The Yass-ByteDance-TikTok nexus underscores the interconnected nature of our supposedly polarized world. Speculation arises whether Yass anticipates a potential TikTok divestiture from ByteDance, hinting at a future firesale.
Let's follow the money rather than slogans.
Author: renqiulan
* For the record, in 2020, then-President Trump issued a sale-or-ban executive order against TikTok, which was rendered unenforceable by an injunction in due course of law.