The Wall Street Journal has reported that investors in a new entity created to oversee content moderation on TikTok will reportedly pay a $10 billion fee to the U.S. Treasury as payment for the Trump administration's role in brokering the agreement. The fee was reportedly raised from a 1924 statute that required the Chinese owner, ByteDance, to either shut down its U-S. operations or sell to an American-based company. This arrangement, which is unprecedented and potentially corrupt, raises questions about the integrity of democracy and the rule of law. The administration has also taken equity stakes in at least 10 companies, including 10 percent of Intel and a 5 percent stake in minerals startup Lithium Americas, and is now also a 10 percent shareholder in another startup called Trilogy Metals. These deals could potentially create conflicts of interest for the government and potentially increase its power to increase its influence over its competitors. However, there is no law on the books that allows the government to use federal money to take equity stakes, which could also disrupt free markets, while federal stakes in private industry could also significantly impact innovation and innovation.