September 21, 2020

Is Trump’s $5 Billion Slush Fund from the TikTok Deal for Real?

Imago via ZUMA

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I’ve been perplexed by the ruckus surrounding President Trump’s ban on TikTok and the subsequent drama surrounding its sale to a US company, but for the most part I didn’t really pay a lot of attention to it. The Chinese government seemed oddly passive about the whole thing, and TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, sort of shrugged and went about finding a buyer.

So fine. Whatever. But seriously, wtf is this?

President Trump has given his “blessing” to Oracle’s partnership with ByteDance to operate TikTok, but his claim that the companies would finance a $5-billion “patriotic” education fund has raised questions about the deal to allow the app to operate in the U.S.

….“We have a deal worked out,” Trump told supporters in North Carolina on Saturday. “They are going to pay $5 billion into a fund for education so we can educate people as to the real history of our country. We are getting very close to that deal.”…ByteDance, Oracle and Walmart, which is part of the TikTok deal, agreed to create an initiative after Trump made the last-minute request. But they have had no discussions about a $5-billion commitment or any other amount, according to people familiar with the situation.

ByteDance and its new partners will not create an education program that seeks to teach American history in a manner that is tailored to any specific bias, said two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Trump has been blathering about some kind of  $5 billion “gift” or “fine” or whatnot that ByteDance would have to pay in order to have a deal approved, but I figured this was just the usual Trump prattle, like Mexico paying for the wall or seeing too many Mercedes sedans on the streets of Manhattan. But apparently it’s real. And it’s going to fund a pet project of Trump’s—well, a project that’s been one of his pets for about a month or so, ever since he learned that “critical race theory” and the 1619 Project made great punching bags among his white audiences on the campaign trail.

It’s not unusual to put conditions on merger approvals. But on breakups ordered by the government? And specifically a condition that’s completely unrelated to the companies involved or their previous actions? And even more specifically, a condition that basically boils down to a Trump slush fund of some kind? Trump’s original demand that TikTok’s buyer should “reimburse” the US Treasury in return for being allowed to finalize the purchase went nowhere—probably because it was illegal and made no sense anyway—but if anything, his latest scam is even worse.

What the hell is going on here?

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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