Trump orders creation of US sovereign wealth fund and says fund can buy TikTok.
Details about exactly how the fund would operate and be financed were not immediately available.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday directing the US Treasury and Commerce departments to create a sovereign wealth fund, and said that fund could buy TikTok.
"We're going to get this thing up and running over the next 12 months. We're going to monetize the asset side of the U.S. balance sheet for the American people," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters. "There will be a mix of liquid assets, assets that we have in this country, as we work to bring them to the American people."
Trump had already touted such a government investment vehicle as a presidential candidate, saying it could fund "major national projects," including infrastructure projects like highways and airports, manufacturing, and medical research.
Details on exactly how the fund would operate and be financed were not immediately available, but Trump previously said it could be funded by "tariffs and other smart things." Normally, these funds rely on a country's budget surplus to make investments, but the U.S. operates with a deficit.
There are more than 90 of these funds worldwide managing over $8 trillion in assets, according to the International Sovereign Wealth Funds Forum.
TikTok, which has about 170 million American users, was briefly taken offline shortly before a law came into effect on January 19 requiring its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell it for national security reasons or face a ban.
Trump, after taking office on January 20, signed an executive order seeking to postpone the implementation of the law for 75 days.
Trump said he was in talks with several people about buying TikTok and that he would likely make a decision about the future of the popular app in February.
