Trump Says U.S. Should Get Slice of TikTok Sale Price | Hacker News Reader

Trump Says U.S. Should Get Slice of TikTok Sale Price

wsj.com

44 pointsdcgudeman27 comments

This is just more of the same behavior we've seen for years now, but you still throw your hands up and ask, what have we come to as a country? You get tired of doing this weekly.

That the President could even think of uttering the phrase that "we should get a cut for allowing this deal to go ahead". As if we're gangsters borderline extorting businesses because "we wouldn't want any harm to come to your very nice deal here, would we?"

Pro-business Republicans, this is what the party stands for? The party line was, benefits of economic growth and business going directly to the people, not government -- and you'll get behind a statement like this, carving out a special rule to take a percentage off the top?

It's like that TOS episode where 1950's gangsters with tommy guns run a planet.

"A Piece of the Action" [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Piece_of_the_Action_(Star_Tr...

This is just continuing testing the waters, before boiling the pot the frog (you) is in. Testing what they can get away with now, versus what they will get away with in the medium-term future. Classic psychopathic gaslighting. What they brag about doing to someone else in the past, you nod, and they'll do it to you soon enough.

What will the lawyers call it though; bribery, or taxation?

I think the extortion here really is him effectively boasting that he put a dead horse's head in Bytedance's bed to make them sell Tiktok to MS.

The guy was into real estate and the construction industry in New York in the 70s and 80s after all.

“I did say that ‘If you buy it [TikTok]… a very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the Treasury of the United States, because we’re making it possible for this deal to happen.’ Right now they don’t have any rights unless we give it to them.”

Can anyone help me understand how this would work?

In practice, it‘s not that hard to do and should work pretty much the same as the big wall the Mexicans paid.

ex·tor·tion

noun

the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats.

is taxation extortion?

No.

like this https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-amazon-cloud/amazon...

It's Trump running his mouth. Charitably, I think he does this to throw out trial balloons. Once he finds out they won't fly, he abandons them. But if you don't ask, they won't give it to you.

Full article:

https://archive.fo/3zM7h

Does anybody know of any precedent for this or similar cases? It sounds extremely illegal to target random business deals like this, but I have no clue really...

>That happened in 2012, the only legal challenge to CFIUS since it was established in 1975, when Chinese-based Sany Group’s affiliate Ralls Corp. bought wind farms in Oregon. Then- President Barack Obama ordered Ralls to not only divest the wind farms, but also forced it to remove items added to the facilities, including concrete foundation, and barred employee access to the premises. Sany complied.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tiktok-trump-breaking...

It sounds like a different situation to me - In the Sany case the projects were simply blocked, there was no question of paying off the treasury department so the deal could happen.

Nice place you have here , it would be bad if something happened to it.

So the US now does Mafia type of shakedowns ... what a gangsta country.

This is plain and unadorned extortion of money from a foreign company by the US government, and Trump makes no effort at all of hiding it.

He does talk too much, but in this instance it was already so plain that it does not change anything.

Trump's association with the mafia is coming through.

Tariffs

Traditionally governments take a slice of any purchase and it's not viewed as extortion it's called taxes. Trump can talk all he wants but he doesn't have the unilateral power to block a sale or issue a tax on that sale.

If the comment is interpreted as a suggestion that taxes should be made then that is something to be considered as there are always positive and negative implications to any tax.

The difference between this and a tax is that the taxes' exact height is known beforehand, and the government is not actively involved in creating the reason why the taxable sale is taking place.

"Sell your business below value, give us a nice cut, or otherwise we'll destroy your business" is not a tax, it is extortion, exactly the same thing that those mafia gangsters supposedly do to restaurants.

> Traditionally governments take a slice of any purchase and it's not viewed as extortion it's called taxes.

Do you believe that's what Trump was referring to?

I believe he's referring to exactly what he refers to most of the time. Just talk. He has the power to do nothing directly in the case of the sale. So people crying "extortion" are falling in to the hyperbole trap that was set. What it might do is prompt a conversation on taxes, but likely nothing at all will change.

> So people crying "extortion" are falling in to the hyperbole trap that was set.

By trap you mean, “pointing out that what he is suggesting is illegal?”

Sure, go ahead and point that out, loudly and often. It needs to be pointed out. (And, if and when other presidents do the same, point it out loudly then, too.)

But "suggesting" is different from "doing" or "ordering". Trump is wishful thinking out loud. True, he's wishing for things beyond his power and authority. But until he actually tries to make it happen instead of just blowing hot air, I'm content to just shake my head. I see no need to be alarmed... yet.

A "suggestion" from a person in power is considered an order by many.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_no_one_rid_me_of_this_tur...

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