This WSJ piece shows how fluid the situation is: “Allies of the president reached out to Microsoft Saturday evening, urging it to post a simple, positive message on Twitter signaling that Microsoft wanted to help keep TikTok alive, and in American hands.”
“These people told the company the president was warming to a deal and urged Microsoft officials to seize the opportunity.”
??? “The proposed transaction gained the blessing of senior Trump officials, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who saw value in an American company getting access to sophisticated TikTok algorithms that decide what videos users are served.”
Key detail that may move needle “prominent TikTok account..young conservatives, called Conservative-HypeHouse, posted to the platform pointing to seven billion views the hashtag #Trump2020 has received on TikTok [versus] 900,000 views #Biden2020 has received.”
NYTimes with more detail. White House internal infighting/deliberation by getting others to Tweet is incredible: "Several .. including .. Steven Mnuchin, reached out to Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina .. to ask him to intervene." nytimes.com/2020/08/02/bus…
NYTimes: "After speaking with Microsoft officials a few times, Mr. Graham eventually tweeted about the deal ... The tweet caught Mr. Trump’s eye, prompting a call between the two in which Mr. Graham told the president .. he stressed the political risks of banning the app."
NYTimes: "On Sunday, Mr. Trump spoke with Microsoft officials after becoming convinced that he was heading off a political issue and solving a security risk"
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