Trump’s bid for a piece of Microsoft-TikTok deal could spur legal action

US President Donald Trump’s unprecedented demand that the US get a cut of the proceeds from the forced sale of Chinese internet giant ByteDance’s short-video app TikTok is based on an interpretation of US law that regulatory lawyers say may be open to challenges.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a US government panel that reviews deals for potential national security risks, has given ByteDance until September 15 to negotiate a sale of TikTok to Microsoft. While CFIUS has never before sought a cut from the proceeds of a divestiture it has ordered, the White House could argue that imposing a fee on Bytedance would deprive it of resources that would otherwise support China’s government on technology initiatives that could harm US interests, some of the legal experts added.