Republican billionaire with $33B TikTok stake ‘bullies’ lawmakers to stop bill forcing sale by Chinese

A billionaire megadonor is “bullying” members of Congress by threatening to stop funding them if they back a bill to order TikTok’s Chinese parent to sell the app, The Post has learned.

Hedge fund manager Jeff Yass is personally calling Republican members of the House to try to halt legislation which would force ByteDance to divest itself of the app, putting it in US hands instead. His fund has a $33 billion stake in the Chinese company.

The bill, known as the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, was being marked up Thursday. It would force ByteDance to either sell TikTok to an American company in 6 months or be banned entirely.

It was jointly drawn up by Rep. Mike Gallagher, the chair of the House select committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and the Democratic ranking member, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi.

Yass is a Republican megadonor who has funneled $130 million since 2020 into PACs and a right-of-center think tank, The Club for Growth, which then funnels money to libertarian and GOP lawmakers such as Senators Ted Cruz (Texas) and Rick Scott (Fla.) and Rep. Jim Banks (Ind.)

A spokesman for Yass denied that he was making calls to Republican members of Congress and said, “Jeff learned about this proposed bill yesterday [Tuesday] and has not spoken with anyone about it. Any suggestion otherwise is categorically false.”

But multiple sources confirmed the calls to The Post.

“He’s telling them he is pulling funding if they support a TikTok ban,” a source with knowledge of the conversation told The Post. One source described it as “bullying.”

“If he is able to persuade an enclave of libertarian Republicans to fight tooth and nail against this… you’ll scare off votes,” one Hill source said.

While a number of bills looking to “ban” TikTok have been floated over the last few years, Capitol Hill sources said they believe this is the first piece of legislation forcing a divestiture of TikTok from ByteDance that could actually pass. 

While ByteDance owns other social media apps and digital games, TikTok is the crown jewel — and a forced sale would kneecap profits and eliminate leverage to charge a hefty price for the popular video app since buyers would know they have to offload it.

It has gotten the White House’s approval and gathered support from Republicans and Democrats.

Yass has already managed to push politicians to do his bidding when it comes to TikTok. Last year, The Post reported, his donations were enough to push longtime China hawk, Tennessee Republican senator Rand Paul, to defend the app in an impassioned speech on the Senate floor.

“Speech is protected whether you like it or not,” Rand said, attacking a bill proposed last year. “Have faith that our desire for freedom is strong enough to survive a few dance videos.”

A well-placed source said of the new TikTok legislation, “Yass is largely credited with single handedly slowing down the anti-TikTok momentum.

“I’m not convinced he is going to be successful this around… but if the bill does go sideways on the right it’s because of him.”