Does TikTok have a buyer?

Lost among the cluster of President Donald Trump’s ramblings from his interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that aired on “Sunday Morning Futures” was this little juicy nugget.

“We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way,” Trump told Bartiromo. He added, “I think I’ll probably need China approval, and I think President Xi will probably do it.”

OK, so if true, that’s sort of a big deal.

After deadlines and more deadlines and a Supreme Court decision and more deadlines, ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, now faces a September deadline to divest from the platform or risk having it banned from U.S. networks and app stores.

The U.S. government fears the Chinese government could force ByteDance to hand over data that would compromise U.S. users. TikTok has said it has not shared U.S. data with the Chinese government and would never do so.

Trump has changed his stance on TikTok over time, and now is trying to find a solution that will keep the app available to its more than 170 million monthly users in the U.S. He has already signed three orders pushing back the enforcement of the U.S. ban.

Trump wouldn’t say exactly who might buy TikTok, only telling Bartiromo, “It’s a group of very wealthy people.”

Well, duh. Most reports are that TikTok is worth more than $100 billion. The sticking point is that it's not even clear that ByteDance would sell TikTok.

Trump said he would be able to say who was involved in possibly buying TikTok in “two weeks.”

Although considering how he just dropped this topic in an interview out of nowhere, it’s hard to know if Trump is serious about a buyer and, if so, if we’ll really find out in two weeks.

If he is serious, and TikTok is actually for sale, who might be interested? CNBC’s Dylan Butts reported, “Potential buyers that have voiced interest in the app include Trump insiders such as Oracle’s Larry Ellison to firms like AppLovin and Perplexity AI.”

MorningStar’s Malik Ahmed Khan wrote that Microsoft and Amazon are “among the many well-capitalized potential suitors.”

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Give me a call

A couple of months back, The Atlantic’s Michael Scherer was doing a story on Trump, but was turned down for an in-person interview. So Scherer called the president’s cellphone and Trump answered by saying, “Who’s calling?” After Scherer identified himself, Trump started to berate him. But he also stayed on the phone and talked to Scherer.

This was not a rare moment. Trump often answers phone calls from the media. The Associated Press’ David Bauder did an excellent job looking into this in “Who’s calling? A reporter, and it’s often President Donald Trump answering.”

Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to President George W. Bush, told Bauder, “I find it utterly remarkable. It’s classic Trump. It defies tradition.”

Trump often speaks to the reporters for just a few moments. But it’s enough for the reporter to either update their story with a new quote or go on the air and gain a bit of credibility with the viewers by saying they just spoke to the president.

A reporter saying, “The president just told me a few moments ago …” might be more valuable than anything the president actually said.

The night that the U.S. attacked Iran’s nuclear sites, NBC News’ Kristen Welker reported on air that she had spoken to the president. Bauder notes that The Wall Street Journal’s Josh Dawsey spoke to the president the next day for just 38 seconds, but it allowed Dawsey to get a fresh quote.

Bauder’s story goes into the ins and outs of a president who is so accessible and it’s all quite fascinating.

Who’s up today?

Unfortunately, there is something else that Trump does that’s rather unique for a president: his constant, petty and boorish attacks on the media.

Which media person/outlet was on Trump's daily media attack list on Monday? It was Forbes Magazine and reporter Dan Alexander.

Trump posted on Truth Social: “Not that it really matters, but a terribly untalented writer for badly failing Forbes Magazine, Dan Alexander, who probably can’t get a meaningful job in the business, has written so inaccurately about me that it is ridiculous. Many others also, the media is mostly Fake News, but Forbes doesn’t even try to get things right. I haven’t spoken to these SleazeBags in years, they don’t want the facts, and they’re so inaccurate (purposely!) about everything. I would have thought Forbes would be DEAD by now, but it continues to hang around like a bad disease. Isn’t it owned by a hostile nation? Anyway, that’s what happens when you have bad reporters with evil intentions. Eventually the publication dies. I’ve happily seen it over, and over, again!”

Using phrases like “fake news” and “sleaze bags” and “bad disease” and “bad reporters with evil intentions” is equally troublesome and pitiful. After all, do I need to remind you that this is coming from the president of the United States?

What has Trump so riled up about Forbes and Alexander? Well, you never know with Trump, but Alexander has reported extensively (and quite well) on the legal issues of Trump-owned companies. But it has been more than 10 days since Alexander’s most recent story: “After Years Of Lying, Trump Organization Tries To Figure Out How Big Its Properties Actually Are.”

Hmm, not so fast

In surprising news Monday, Trump dropped his federal lawsuit against Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer and The Des Moines Register. But, hold on, he’s still suing them. The suit is just being shifted to state court.

Selzer’s stunning poll just days before the 2024 presidential election had Vice President Kamala Harris leading Trump 47% to 44% among likely Iowa voters. Selzer, who retired as planned following the election, was a highly regarded pollster, but Trump ended up winning Iowa by 14 points.

Trump’s suit, filed last December, read, “While Selzer is not the only pollster to engage in this corrupt practice, she had a huge platform and following and, thus, a significant and impactful opportunity to deceive voters.”

NPR investigative reporter Tom Dreisbach reported that Selzer’s attorney said there was no settlement in the case.

At first, it was a head-scratcher. Trump is never one to walk away from a fight like this, so you had to wonder if he was going to refile the case.

Well, wonder no more. That’s exactly what happened. Trump’s news suit was filed in Polk County (Iowa) District Court on Monday.

Mamdani vs. New York Post

After his stunning victory in the primary, Zohran Mamdani is now a strong candidate — and maybe even the favorite — to become the next mayor of New York City. His biggest opponent might be the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post.

As Semafor’s Max Tani notes, “Now, following his shocking primary showing, and with a grab bag of damaged candidates running to his right, the Post may be Mamdani’s most formidable opponent in November’s general election. The friction between Mamdani and the paper is an ideological battle over New York, but it is also a battle of two different forms of media: the old-school lurid local tabloid against the new-media-savvy upstart.”

There’s a lot going on in all this, and Tani does a good job laying it all out.

But this passage from Tani is at the heart of this drama: “Mamdani’s ascendancy also comes at an unusual moment for News Corp.’s New York paper, which now occupies a unique place in the American media landscape. Once one of dozens of big-city tabloids, the Post now stands alone as the last truly influential local tabloid. Its old business model — local ads and printed papers — has long since declined, and the paper has reinvented itself primarily as a national online brand led by Daily Mail alum Keith Poole. But the Post has a special place in Rupert Murdoch’s heart, and in Trump’s. The tabloid has thrived in recent years as an oppositional force to Democratic politicians. Its coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story helped send its online web traffic soaring and made it profitable for several years. While a recent News Corp investor report said the Post’s web traffic had dipped, the national media’s focus on Mamdani and his plans to change New York could provide good fodder for the paper and segments on Fox News.”

Jon Stewart and the news

Be sure to check out the latest addition to our Poynter 50 series, which features 50 moments and people that shaped journalism over the past half-century — and continue to influence its future.

The latest piece is from Ciara O'Rourke with “When Jon Stewart took over ‘The Daily Show,’ satire became a trusted news source.”

O’Rourke writes, “Jon Stewart has often subverted expectations, blending earnestness, activism and even anxiety into the arcs of jokes aimed at people with power and the media establishment. Eventually, he became part of both groups. While he didn’t invent political satire, “The Daily Show” evolved into a trusted source of news under his leadership, especially for some younger Americans who turned to it not just for laughs, but for clarity about what was actually happening in the world. By lampooning news cycle after news cycle, Stewart reframed what reporting could look like and who could credibly relay — as he said opening his first ‘Daily Show’ as host — the headlines.”

Getting back together?

After an awkward breakup earlier this year, it appears Major League Baseball and ESPN are again having conversations that would keep MLB on the network.

The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported, “The discussions were described to be in their early stages and, if they were to progress, would center around local rights and pieces of ESPN’s former package.”

MLB and ESPN have been in business together for 35 years, but that relationship appeared to be coming to an end. Back in February, ESPN opted out of the final three years of its $550 million contract with MLB. In recent years, ESPN has cut down on the number of games it shows. These days, ESPN only shows one game a week (“Sunday Night Baseball”). But it also carries some postseason games, as well as the Home Run Derby at the All-Star Game. As of now, their relationship is set to end after the season in October — unless a new deal can be worked out.

When the news broke in February that ESPN was opting out of the deal, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred sent a memo to team owners saying the two sides “mutually agreed” to part ways. But almost immediately, there were reports that it was far from a mutual agreement. It was ESPN that wanted out of the deal.

However, in his memo to the owners, Manfred expressed frustration at the “minimal coverage that MLB has received on ESPN’s platforms over the past several years outside of the actual live game coverage.”

Now that things have cooled down a bit, perhaps there is room to negotiate a new contract. At the end of the day, Major League Baseball is still a major sport and provides ESPN with very relevant programming, particularly during the summer when the other major sports (NFL, NBA, NHL) are mostly off. And ESPN still remains the biggest sports network around, so MLB should want to be in business with it.

It just makes sense for both sides to figure out a new deal.

Media tidbits

• Somehow, this headline is not the least bit surprising. The Washington Post’s Desmond Butler, Jonathan O'Connell, Hannah Natanson and Aaron Gregg with “DOGE has the keys to sensitive data that could help Elon Musk.” The Post wrote, “For months, Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service plumbed the federal government’s information systems, scouring arcane internal records that the billionaire said were guiding his hunt for waste. Now that Musk has stepped away from his government role, some of that data could be valuable in another way — by giving the world’s richest man a competitive advantage over his rivals in the private sector. A Washington Post examination found that in at least seven major departments or agencies, DOGE secured the power to view records that contain competitors’ trade secrets, nonpublic details about government contracts, and sensitive regulatory actions or other information.” So far, there is no evidence that the information has been used to benefit Musk’s business, but competitors are, as you can imagine, deeply concerned.
• Media Matters’ Matt Gertz with “Fox News’ job as Trump’s tax and spending bill moves toward passage: Help it over the line.”
• The New York Times’ Benjamin Mullin with “He Made Billions on Google and PayPal. Now, He’s Betting on News.”
• CNN’s Randi Kaye investigates the mystery of journalist Jodi Huisentruit’s disappearance in 1995: “Thirty years later, this journalist’s disappearance remains a mystery.”
• Forbes senior contributor Mark Joyella with “MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ Charges Toward Its 20th Year: ‘We Want To Break New Ground.’”
• For Poynter, Jan Childs with “The hurricane forecast cone is changing, and journalists are part of the overhaul.”

Hot type

• One of the best feature writers out there with a new piece. The Atlantic’s Jennifer Senior with “Why Can’t Americans Sleep?”

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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].

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