The TikTok-Musk-Trump drama is peak 2025, and it’s only January

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Look, the TikTok situation is a mess. Like, a proper “your friend’s cousin’s dog walker is somehow also your landlord” kind of mess. Let me break this down for you because, holy hell, there’s a lot to unpack.

First off, TikTok has about 170 million Americans doing their little dances and watching their endless streams of content.

But here’s the thing: the U.S. government is convinced that ByteDance (TikTok’s Chinese parent company) is basically a spy in your pocket.

Thanks to a law Biden signed back in April, TikTok has until January 19th to either find an American buyer or get the boot.

Yup, Reuters reports that Chinese officials are actually considering selling TikTok to the guy who turned Twitter into X.

TikTok’s response? They call it “pure fiction,” but let’s be real – we’ve seen weirder things happen.

The price tag? A cool $40-50 billion is pocket change for the guy who bought Twitter for $44 billion and then renamed it after a letter.

It’s worth noting that if Musk were to sell X at the time of writing, the company would only be worth $9.3 billion, according to recently released disclosures from Fidelity’s Blue Chip Growth Fund.

Remember when he tried to nuke TikTok back in 2020? Well, now he has 14 million followers on the platform and suddenly thinks that banning it is a terrible idea. Funny how that works, right?

He’s even asking the Supreme Court to hit pause on the whole ban thing, saying he could work out a “political resolution” if given the chance.

Oh, it doesn’t stop there. Senator Ed Markey just dropped a new bill that would give TikTok an extra 270 days to figure this mess out.

The Supreme Court has been listening to all this drama, and they are not convinced by TikTok‘s argument that a ban would violate the First Amendment.

The government’s basically saying, “Look, we’re not trying to control what people say, we just don’t want a Chinese company potentially having access to all this American user data.” I

Here’s the kicker: while all this is happening, Americans are already jumping ship to… wait for it… another Chinese app called RedNote. It’s like watching someone quit Coke to switch to Pepsi because they’re worried about sugar. The irony is just chef’s kiss.

The January 19th deadline is coming up fast, and here’s what could happen:

1. Musk swoops in with his billions (because, of course, he would).
2. Some other American company buys TikTok (Meta’s probably salivating somewhere).
3. The deadline gets extended thanks to Markey’s bill.
4. TikTok gets banned, and millions of Americans have to find a new way to waste time at work.

The funniest part? If you already have TikTok on your phone, it’s not going to magically disappear on January 19th. It’ll just stop getting updates, which is basically the app equivalent of being ghosted.

So yeah, that’s where we are. A Chinese-owned app that’s become America’s favorite time-waster might end up in the hands of the guy who changed Twitter’s name to a letter, while the former president who tried to ban it is now its biggest fan.

Welcome to 2025, folks.

With the clock ticking down to the January 19th deadline, the fate of TikTok in the U.S. is hanging in the balance. From Elon Musk’s potential buyout to Trump’s unexpected change of heart, there’s no shortage of drama. Do you think TikTok should find an American buyer, or is a ban the right move?

Kevin Raposo

Kevin is KnowTechie's founder and executive editor. With over 15 years of blogging experience in the tech industry, Kevin has transformed what was once a passion project into a full-blown tech news publication. Shoot him an email at kevin@knowtechie.com.