6 ms·
Trump Says U.S. Should Get Slice of TikTok Sale Price
- superhuzza 6y agoFull article: https://archive.fo/3zM7h 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...
- casefields 6y ago>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-breakingviews-idUSKBN24Z05O https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tiktok-trump-breaking...
- superhuzza 6y agoIt 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.
- Slartie 6y agoThis 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.
- mytailorisrich 6y agoHe does talk too much, but in this instance it was already so plain that it does not change anything.
- antiviral 6y ago“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?
- endymi0n 6y agoIn practice, it‘s not that hard to do and should work pretty much the same as the big wall the Mexicans paid.
- runnr_az 6y agoNo.
- once-in-a-while 6y agoTrump is a master Troll. But here on YC most people don't get it...
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- piptastic 6y agoex·tor·tion noun the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats.
- dencodev 6y agois taxation extortion?
- AnimalMuppet 6y agoIt'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.
- rasz 6y ago
- elmerfud 6y agoTraditionally 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.
- Slartie 6y agoThe 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.
- mcphage 6y ago> 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?
- elmerfud 6y agoI 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.
- mcphage 6y ago> 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?”
- AnimalMuppet 6y ago
- supernova87a 6y agoThis 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?
- xsmasher 6y agoIt's like that TOS episode where 1950's gangsters with tommy guns run a planet.
- pseudolus 6y ago"A Piece of the Action" [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Piece_of_the_Action_(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Piece_of_the_Action_(Star_Tr...
- loopz 6y agoThis 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?
- mytailorisrich 6y agoI 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.
- username3 6y agoTariffs
- sg47 6y agoTrump's association with the mafia is coming through.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- tibbydudeza 6y agoNice 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.