President Donald Trump granted Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok a brief reprieve from a national security law that requires the app to be banned in the U.S. unless it is sold to U.S.-approved buyers.

While speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump suggested he would approve of TikTok being sold to tech billionaires Elon Musk or Larry Ellison, according to CNBC.

It is unclear if either of those individuals has expressed any interest in acquiring the popular social media platform or if the Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance is interested in selling to them. Any possible transaction will need to happen fast, as Trump's move to delay the TikTok ban only delayed things for a couple of months.

Trump would support Musk or Ellison buying TikTok

President Trump on Tuesday addressed reporters at the White House about a new joint venture involving artificial intelligence infrastructure but was asked at one point for his thoughts on "Elon buying TikTok" to avoid the impending ban on the popular social media app.

"I would be if he wanted to buy it, yes," Trump replied of Musk, and then said of Oracle Chairman Ellison, "I’d like Larry to buy it, too."

CNBC pointed out that Musk is arguably the most prominent and influential of Trump's wealthy backers, who famously acquired Twitter a few years ago and transformed it into a bastion of free speech known as X.

Ellison, meanwhile, has long been an open supporter of Trump, and his Oracle notably already provides cloud infrastructure in the U.S. for TikTok.

Trump suggests U.S. government should own a stake in TikTok

President Trump had previously floated the idea of the U.S. government owning a 50% stake in TikTok as a way to keep the platform active for its hundreds of millions of users while also addressing national security concerns, and he seemed to revisit that on Tuesday in conjunction with the notion that one of his billionaire backers could purchase the platform.

"What I’m thinking about saying to somebody is, buy it and give half to the United States of America," Trump explained. "And we’ll give you the permit."

Such an arrangement would provide TikTok and parent company ByteDance with "the ultimate partner" in the form of the U.S. government, which would conceivably "make it very worthwhile for them in terms of the permits and everything else."

Trump delayed TikTok ban for 75 days

It was on President Trump's first day in office, just one day after the TikTok ban was supposed to go into effect, that he took executive action to delay the implementation and enforcement of the law that was upheld by the Supreme Court and requires the platform to be sold to U.S. buyers or be banned in the U.S.

"The unfortunate timing of section 2(a) of the Act -- one day before I took office as the 47th President of the United States -- interferes with my ability to assess the national security and foreign policy implications of the Act’s prohibitions before they take effect," Trump said in the order. "This timing also interferes with my ability to negotiate a resolution to avoid an abrupt shutdown of the TikTok platform while addressing national security concerns."

"Accordingly, I am instructing the Attorney General not to take any action to enforce the Act for a period of 75 days from today to allow my Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform used by millions of Americans," he added.

CNBC noted that neither Musk, Ellison, Oracle, nor TikTok responded to requests for comments about Trump's remarks, but did point out that the Chinese government had previously signaled its approval for ByteDance to sell TikTok to Musk if he was interested.