U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok and that he would like to see a bidding war over the app. Microsoft declined to comment. TikTok and ByteDance did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for a comment outside regular business hours.

Microsoft, which declined to comment on the president’s remarks, had discussed buying TikTok in 2020, when Trump tried to force a sale of the app in his first term.

I would say, yes,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One when asked if the software giant was bidding to buy TikTok from its Chinese parent company ByteDance.