In a significant financial move, former President Donald Trump announced in September that the United States would receive a substantial fee for facilitating the TikTok transaction. Now, insiders have revealed to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times that this fee is projected to reach approximately $10 billion. This sum is reportedly being contributed by new stakeholders, including Oracle and Silver Lake. It is understood that an initial payment of $2.5 billion was made to the U.S. Treasury when the agreement was finalized on January 22nd, with the remaining amount to be disbursed in subsequent installments.

This development marks another instance of the Trump administration’s direct involvement in private sector dealings, a practice that has raised eyebrows. The administration previously acquired a 10-percent stake in Intel in August, secured a “golden share” in US Steel, and orchestrated a 20-percent cut from Nvidia’s chip sales to China. Notably, the TikTok arrangement features Larry Ellison, Oracle’s co-founder and CTO, who is also a prominent supporter and donor to Trump’s political endeavors.

Should these reports hold true, the fee would constitute more than 70 percent of the transaction’s total value, which involved a consortium of investors acquiring a majority interest in TikTok for $14 billion.