Billionaire TikTok investor Jeff Yass is among the names on a shortlist for former President Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary if he wins a second term.
Insiders told Bloomberg the 68-year-old was a strong contender along with former US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Key Square Group LP founder Scott Bessent and hedge fund titan John Paulson.
Yass is the co-founder of Susquehanna International Group LLP, a technology and trading firm based in Philadelphia.
The single largest asset in his $40.8 billion portfolio is a stake in TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, worth a whopping $15 billion.
The GOP mega-donor’s name has been in the news recently amid speculation that TikTok may be banned from app stores and web servers in the United States.
Former President Donald Trump is reportedly considering GOP megadonor Jeff Yass for Treasury secretary if he wins a second term
Yass is the co-founder of Susquehanna International Group LLP, a technology and trading firm
He owns a $15 billion stake in TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance
The US House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to pass legislation that could ban the platform in the US.
Trump led the charge to ban the app in 2020, but recently reversed his stance and voiced his opposition to the bipartisan bill.
“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” the former president wrote on social media, referring to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
‘I don’t want Facebook, which cheated in the last election, to do better. They are a true public enemy!’
The statement came after Trump met with Yass during a donor event organized by the Club for Growth, a conservative nonprofit that counts the billionaire as one of its biggest supporters.
Trump has since denied they ever discussed the video-sharing platform. “No, I didn’t,” the 77-year-old told CNBC on Monday morning. “He never mentioned TikTok.”
However, former campaign manager and White House adviser Steve Bannon has suggested that Yass was behind Trump’s change of heart.
“Simple: Yass Coin,” Bannon wrote on social media, sharing an Axios article titled “Inside Trump’s TikTok Flip-Flop.”
Yass and Trump met at a donor event for the conservative nonprofit Club for Growth last week. Soon after, Trump changed his tune on TikTok, which he previously tried to ban in the US
So far, Yass has given $46.4 million to Republican candidates and committees in the 2024 election cycle
Trump has since denied that Yass “mentioned TikTok” during their meeting at the donor event in Palm Beach, Florida
Yass and his wife, Janine, contribute millions each year to education providers through the Yass Prize
The billionaire contributed $47 million to Republican candidates and committees during the 2022 midterms, making him the nation’s third-largest conservative political donor at the time.
He eclipsed that record this yearshelling out $46.4 million so far, claiming the top spot as the biggest donor in the 2024 election cycle.
Yass and his wife, Janine, are also co-founders of the Yass Prize, a nonprofit organization that contributes millions each year to education providers.
Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung maintains there have been no discussions about who should serve in another Trump administration.’
In August 2020, Trump issued an executive order requiring ByteDance to sell its US assets and destroy all data within 90 days.
This followed an earlier set of orders that banned the tech giant from conducting transactions in the US before September of that year.
“There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance Ltd. … may take actions that threaten to impair the national security of the United States,” Trump wrote in the order.