Mark Warner wants to know how the Trump regime is claiming a $10 billion windfall from the sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations.
“This arrangement, if true, would continue a pattern set by the Trump administration of exercising the power and authority of the government to benefit certain companies and individuals close to the President, and to extract financial concessions as a condition of doing so,” Sen. Warner, D-Va., wrote in a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that was made public on Tuesday.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that investors in the TikTok deal – including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX – have already paid $2.5 billion to the Treasury and will pay the remaining $7.5 billion in installments.
The $10 billion figure cited by Donald Trump in his public bragging represents 71.4 percent of the new company’s publicly announced $14 billion valuation.
Warner noted in the letter to Bessent that Trump repeatedly circumvented a 2024 law limiting the reach of TikTok, and that the way the sale of the company’s U.S. operations to investors “raises a fear that the administration prioritized securing the well-connected investors’ ownership of TikTok over national security.”
“The opaque, uncompetitive, and ad hoc process surrounding this government-brokered sale, with numerous clear conflicts of interest, has no analogue in modern American history,” Warner wrote.
The senator has requested detailed documentation from the Treasury Department on the TikTok deal, including:
- the legal authority for approving the sale.
- the basis for requesting $10 billion.
- how the amount was determined.
- the involvement of Trump in the deal-making.
- the intended use of the funds given the Anti-Deficiency Act’s prohibition on spending non-appropriated funds.
Good luck getting a straight answer.
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Chris Graham
