Trump's demand that the US get a cut of TikTok's sale could set a dangerous precedent

TikTok is up for grabs. But while the popular short-form video app likely won't lack for suitors, President Donald Trump says the US government needs to get a "substantial amount of money" as part of any deal.

It's a demand that experts say is far outside the norm at best, and if it were to be met could set a dangerous precedent.

"It's really not for the President to say that a deal can go through or a deal can't go through, or that a company must pay a ransom to the United States government or get a deal done by a particular deadline," said Avery Gardiner, general counsel and senior fellow for competition, data and power at the Center for Democracy and Technology. "That's very unusual, it's more than very unusual. It's wrong, it doesn't happen."

The US government's authority to compel foreign firms to sell their business to an American company comes primarily from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). CFIUS has stepped up its scrutiny of Chinese-owned firms in recent years as tensions between the United States and China on technology escalate — the committee recently forced the Chinese owners of Grindr to sell the gay dating app to a US-based company over national security concerns.

ByteDance, the Chinese tech firm that owns TikTok, is already under investigation by CFIUS over its 2016 acquisition of US app Musical.ly. And there is a scenario in which the committee could insert a fee to cover the government's expenses from the review process, according to Jeffrey Bialos, a partner at law firm Eversheds Sutherland who served as the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Industrial Affairs in the Clinton administration.

"The only argument I can see the government making is that they should be compensated for the time and effort they spent on this," Bialos said. However, "to require that part of the consideration ByteDance is getting from selling its business go to the US government, I think that's an overreach."

Trump says generals feel Beirut blast was likely an 'attack'

President Donald Trump said U.S. military generals have told him that they “seem to feel” the massive explosion that rocked Beirut on Tuesday, killing at least 70 people, was a “terrible attack” likely caused by a bomb.

Trump was asked why he called it an attack and not an accident, especially since Lebanese officials say they have not determined the cause of the explosion. He told reporters at the White House: “It would seem like it based on the explosion. I met with some of our great generals and they just seem to feel that it was. This was not a — some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of a event. ... They seem to think it was a attack. It was a bomb of some kind, yes.”

Trump offered condolences to the victims and said the United States stood ready to assist Lebanon. “It looks like a terrible attack,” he said.

A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the matter Tuesday night, referring questions back to the White House.

The explosion flattened much of a port and damaged buildings across the capital, sending a giant mushroom cloud into the sky. In addition to those who died, more than 3,000 other people were injured, with bodies buried in the rubble, officials said.

The cause of the blast was not immediately known, but initial reports suggested a fire had detonated a warehouse at the port. Abbas Ibrahim, chief of Lebanese General Security, said it might have been caused by highly explosive material that was confiscated from a ship some time ago and stored at the port. Local television channel LBC said the material was ammonium nitrate.

Witnesses reported seeing a strange, orange cloud like that which appears when toxic nitrogen dioxide gas is released after an explosion involving nitrates.

75-foot wave recorded off California during last month's 'bomb cyclone'

ames Behrens, the manager for Scripp's Coastal Data Information Program, told the website that a wave of that size to occur so close to land is extremely rare.

"The only other station in the network that measured a wave this large is deployed 800 miles off the coast of Washington,” he said.

The "bomb cyclone" hit northern California and southern Oregon during one of the busiest travel times of the year. The storm brought powerful wind gusts and larger-than-normal waves along the coast.