Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Thursday he is assembling a group of investors to try to purchase the video app TikTok.

The House overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday that would force TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app within six months of the law taking effect or have it banned in the United States. Those who support the legislation argue ByteDance is beholden to the Chinese government and TikTok presents national security concerns.

In his role as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States during Donald Trump’s presidency, Mnuchin played a key role in the executive order Trump signed in 2020 that would have banned TikTok unless it was acquired by an American company. 

A court blocked Trump’s ban after TikTok sued, and then President Joe Biden in 2021 revoked Trump’s directive while ordering a broad review of foreign-owned apps.

In an appearance on CNBC’s "Squawk Box,” Mnuchin said he continues to believe TikTok should be sold, also citing national security concerns.

“It should be owned by U.S. businesses,” he said. “There's no way that the Chinese would ever let a U.S. company own something like this in China.”

But Mnuchin added he would hate to see the app banned in the U.S.

“It's a great company,” he said. “It would be terrible if it would shut down. Lots of users use it. And we need a competitor to Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.”

Before being nominated as Trump’s treasury secretary, Mnuchin was a financier and movie investor. Today, he is founder and managing partner of Liberty Strategic Capital, a Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm.

He told CNBC he has spoken to a “bunch” of potential partners in making a bid for TikTok, but he declined to give names.

Mnuchin said it would be a combination of investors with no single person controlling the company.

He said he does not think a major tech company such as Meta or Google should be allowed to buy TikTok because such a sale would face potential antitrust issues.

Asked if he thought six months was enough time to close a deal for the app, he said, “I think a lot can be done in six months. It may take a little bit longer,” adding that he thinks the app needs to be rebuilt with “U.S. technology.” 

Mnuchin said there is “no question” the Chinese government has “both the ability to influence the data and they have the ability to collect data” on TikTok. 

He declined to answer a question about whether China is currently using the app in sinister ways, saying he could not publicly share some information he learned as treasury secretary.

TikTok has not responded to emails from Spectrum News seeking comment. ByteDance has not said the app is for sale.

The company has long denied that it could be used as a tool of the Chinese government. TikTok has said it has never shared U.S. user data with Chinese authorities and won’t do so if it is asked. To date, the U.S. government also has not provided evidence that shows TikTok shared such information with Chinese authorities.

In a reversal of his past position, Trump recently came out in opposition of a TikTok ban. 

The former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee this year told CNBC on Monday he now fears a TikTok ban would “make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with the media.” He justified his stance by repeating a debunked claim that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg spent hundreds of millions dollars to help Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

Trump recently met with with Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor who reportedly owns a $33 billion stake in TikTok, but the former president says Yass did not mention the company. 

Mnuchin said he has not spoken to Trump about his plans for TikTok, but he said he believes his former boss would approve of a sale.

“I think he doesn't want it to shut down because he's concerned about the power that that would create for Facebook,” Mnuchin said. “I believe he would support a sale.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Note: This article was updated to correct the spelling of Stever Mnuchin's name.