Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin pooling investors to buy TikTok

Mnuchin did not name his potential co-investors during the Thursday interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” but he ardently reaffirmed the need for parent company ByteDance to sell the popular short-form video app. His announcement comes a day after the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to ban TikTok in about six months if it remains under the control of a China-based company. “Users love it, so it shouldn’t be shut down,” Mnuchin said. “The app needs to be rebuilt in the U.S. It needs to be U.S. technology.” He added that a U.S. sale would foster healthy competition with domestic social media outlets like YouTube and Instagram. A former cabinet member to President Donald Trump, Mnuchin hinted at the security threats TikTok poses, saying, “There’s certain things that I can't talk about…But let's just say when you have this app on everybody’s phone, it has the ability to collect an awful lot of data.”

Speaking of Trump, isn’t he against the sale of TikTok now? Despite once signing an executive order in an attempt to ban TikTok from the United States, Trump has reportedly changed his tune. Mnuchin hypothesized that Trump is not against the app and that he is only concerned about the power Facebook would gain with no competition from TikTok. “I believe he would support a sale,” Mnuchin said.

Will the bill pass? The bipartisan measure is reportedly expected to face tougher scrutiny in the Senate, but President Joe Biden has said he will sign it if it passes.

Dig deeper: Listen to Leo Briceno’s report on The World and Everything In It podcast about the potential ban and why lawmakers are pushing for it.