🕺 Is The 3rd Time The Charm For President Donald Trump’s TikTok Ban?

In today’s newsletter I discuss President Donald Trump is extending the enforcement of his TikTok ban for 3rd time, There’s drama in "Margaritaville", Honda is launching reusable rockets, SpaceX’s Starship rocket exploded, Meta is going all in on AI-powered smart glasses, the new social media app Own is looking to tokenize the creator economy by rewarding creators with crypto payments, and PGA Tour has a new Commissioner.

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🕺 Is The 3rd Time The Charm For President Donald Trump’s TikTok Ban?

President Donald Trump has once again extended the deadline for ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of the popular social media platform TikTok, to sell its U.S. operations. This marks the third such extension, pushing the decision out another 90 days. If you think this is the last time the deadline will be extended then I have a bridge to sell you! The move, announced by the White House, comes despite earlier strong rhetoric from the administration about a potential ban and a recently passed bipartisan law.

The initial pressure on TikTok stemmed from national security concerns, with U.S. officials expressing fears that the Chinese government could access American user data or influence content on the platform. The app boasts over 1.582 billion monthly active users worldwide, and generated an estimated $23 billion in revenue in 2024. This is a significant increase from the $16.1 billion in revenue they reported in 2023. ByteDance itself is a significant global player, targeting revenue growth of approximately 20% in 2025, reaching roughly $186 billion dollars from $155 billion dollars in 2024.

So is TikTok ever going to be banned? Some might argue that a more accurate word instead of “ban” would honestly be “copout” by the current administration.

What happened to the “Ban TikTok” rhetoric from January? Weren’t we supposed to just believe the current administration’s party line that U.S. citizen’s data will be safe from the Chinese government if TikTok was instead owned by a U.S.-owned company? If that was true, then wouldn’t logic dictate that American’s data is currently not safe, and that the Trump administration is deficient in protecting our data privacy by extending the TikTok ban for a 3rd time?

So how did we get here in the first place? Let me levelset.

On April 20, 2024, during the Biden administration, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill called Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which we’ll just call PAFACA. The bill called for China’s tech giant ByteDance to either sell TikTok, or the social media video app will be banned/blocked in the U.S.

Now we find ourselves in June of 2025, in the second Trump administration, and they’ve extended the deadline to ban TikTok for a 3rd 90-day period.

So much for all the tough talk and how good the current administration is at negotiating. Either ban TikTok outright or don’t, but let’s stop lying to the American people.

😎 Business

Meta is expanding its smart glasses lineup through its extended partnership with EssilorLuxottica, and is launching new AI-powered smart glasses under the Oakley and Prada brands. EssilorLuxottica CEO Francesco Milleri said that 2 million units of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses have been sold since 2023, with a goal to increase annual production to 10 million units by the end of 2026. That’s pretty ambitious, and also requires a leap-of-faith that Meta’s AI-powered smart glasses will grow in popularity. Call me skeptical.

I’m not fully convinced people will spend money on AI-powered smart glasses to livestream their questionable life choices, but who knows with the new generation.

🪦 Entertainment

There's an ongoing dispute regarding Jimmy Buffett's $275 million dollar estate. Even when you carefully plan out your estate, and create a family trust, there’s still a human element that can throw everything into chaos.

When Jimmy Buffett died on September 1, 2023 his family trust kicked in, and two of his co-trustees began to fight over the assets. Long story short, Jimmy Buffett’s wife Jane Buffett is fighting with his longtime financial advisor Richard Mozenter, and the lawsuits have started to fly. Jane Buffett alleges Richard Mozenter charged excessive fees of $1.7 million dollars annually and mismanaged the trust, causing the estate to only bring in $2 million dollars annually. While that is a lot of money to most people, but when you consider that Jimmy Buffett’s estate is worth $275 million dollars, then that $2 million dollars a year is generating less than 1% return on the estate’s investments.

Right now the average rate on a one-year Certificate of Deposit (CD) is around 1.62% to 2.02% annually. CD’s are known to be an incredibly conservative investment vehicle that produces a very stable and low return on investment. If Jimmy Buffett’s estate were to liquidate all of his assets, and invest in CDs, then they could make $5,555,000 million dollars a year at an interest rate of 2.02%.

Index funds track a specific market index, like the S&P 500, and offer a way to diversify investments. In 2025 the S&P 500 is expected to return 10% including dividend payments. If Jimmy Buffett’s estate were to invest in an index fund pegged to the S&P 500, then the estate could expect to make $27.5 million dollars a year.

If Jimmy Buffett’s estate was feeling risky, they could always roll the dice and invest in a high-yielding REIT like Medical Properties Trust (MPW) that is paying a 27% annual dividend. If they invested everything in Medical Properties Trust, and the company didn’t go bankrupt, then they could make $74,250,000 million dollars at an interest rate of 27%.

So if Jimmy Buffett’s estate is only making $2 million dollars a year on top of a $275 million dollar business empire, then something is clearly not ok in "Margaritaville".

📹 Tech

Own is a new social media app aiming to tokenize the creator economy by rewarding creators with crypto payments from day one. The app was co-founded by Amir Kaltak and Katia Zaitsev. It allows creators to keep a significantly higher percentage of their earnings, with 80% from tipping, 90% from brand sponsorships, and 95% from "Own Shop" sales, clearly targeting the projected $525 billion dollar global creator economy by 2030, because who needs consistent income when you can have makebelieve digital tokens?

🪙 Crypto

The Department of Justice recently announced the seizure of over $225 million dollars in cryptocurrency tied to global "pig butchering" scams, marking the largest such seizure in U.S. history. These elaborate frauds, known as "pig butchering" due to the way scammers "fatten up" their victims with fake affection and promises before "slaughtering" their finances, involve scammers building trust with victims before luring them into fake crypto investments, often resulting in massive financial losses. I’ll bet these sophisticated criminals are just heartbroken that their ingenious scheme to "fatten up" their victims was spoiled.

🚀 Space

Honda, primarily recognized globally for its automotive and motorcycle manufacturing, has surprised many with a successful test of a reusable rocket prototype. While the company has a history in aerospace, primarily with its HondaJet business aircraft, the launch of a reusable rocket seems to have come out of thin air (pun intended).

This move is part of a larger $45 billion dollars technology development strategy that Honda announced in 2021, aiming to diversify its portfolio into areas like lunar exploration and reusable rocket technology. Honda is exactly a scrappy space startup. We’re talking about a company that reported revenue of approximately $142.45 billion dollars in 2024, and who has a market cap of around $52.85 billion dollars. Looks like Honda has a new hobby.

🔥 SpaceX

On Wednesday, June 18 at around 11 p.m. CST, SpaceX’s Starship Ship 36 exploded while preparing to perform a test fire on their test stand at their Massey's test site at Starbase in South Texas. This is a big setback for SpaceX’s Starship program. This Starship Ship 36 was anticipated to fly in July, but we’ll obviously be looking at a long delay while SpaceX analyzes what went wrong, and work begins to rebuild the Massey’s test site that was destroyed in the explosion. If there is a “bright side” to this, it’s that SpaceX has created an assembly line of Starships, and Starship Ship 37 will be ready for testing in July.

🏌️‍♂️ Sports

The PGA Tour has a new Commissioner. Brian Rolapp has been appointed CEO of the PGA Tour, with Commissioner Jay Monahan transitioning out of his role by the end of 2026. This leadership change follows a significant $1.5 billion dollars investment into the PGA Tour from Strategic Sports Group.

The current PGA Commissioner, Jay Monahan's, compensation in 2022 was $18.6 million. This figure includes a base salary of $1.8 million, along with $9.2 million in bonuses and incentives, and an actuarial estimate of $7.4 million for non-cash retirement benefits he’ll receive upon retirement.

My guess is Brian Rolapp is up for a pretty big raise when he takes over the PGA as their new Commissioner in 2026.

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irl Media NEWSLETTER is written, edited, and published by Chris Thompson.