President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday directing the U.S. to take steps to start developing a government-owned investment fund he said could be used to profit off TikTok if he can find it an American buyer.

Trump signed an order on his first day in office to grant TikTok until early April to find an approved partner or buyer, but he’s said he’s looking for the U.S. to take a 50% stake in the massive social media platform. He said Monday in the Oval Office that TikTok, which is owned by China-based ByteDance, is an example of what could go in a new U.S. sovereign wealth fund.

“We might put that in the sovereign wealth fund, whatever we make or we do a partnership with very wealthy people, a lot of options,” he said of TikTok. “We have a lot of other things that we could put in the fund.”

Sovereign wealth funds invest in such assets as stocks, bonds and real estate. They are typically funded by a country’s budgetary surpluses, which the U.S. currently does not have.

Trump said many other nations have such investment funds, predicting that the U.S. could top the Saudi fund’s size. “Eventually we’ll catch it,” he said.

There are over 90 sovereign wealth funds around the world that mange over $8 trillion in assets, according to the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds, a London-based organization made up of about 50 of these entities.

In the U.S., more than 20 sovereign wealth funds exist at the state level, according to analysis from the Center for Global Development, a Washington-based nonpartisan think tank. The largest ones — based in Alaska, New Mexico and Texas — are financed through revenue that comes from oil, gas and mineral proceeds and is used to fund in-state programs, such as education. These funds are owned by governments, but they tend to operate as standalone institutions with their own investment strategies and staff, the center said.

The president put Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick, Trump’s pick for Commerce secretary, in charge of the groundwork for the fund, which would likely require congressional approval.

The Biden administration had studied the possibility of creating a sovereign wealth fund for national security investments, but the idea did not yield any concrete action before President Joe Biden left office last month.

Bessent said the Trump administration’s goal is to have the fund open within the next 12 months. Lutnick said another use of the fund could be for the government to take a profit-earning stake in vaccine manufacturers.

“The extraordinary size and scale of the U.S. government and the business it does with companies should create value for American citizens,” he said.

Trump freeze plan blocked: A judge in the nation’s capital kept a temporary block Monday on a Trump administration plan for a freeze on federal funding after some nonprofit groups said they’re still struggling to get promised grants and loans.

U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan extended an order she issued last week that paused a sweeping plan to freeze potentially trillions in federal spending. While the memo outlining it has since been rescinded, the Republican administration has said some kind of funding freeze is still planned.

A judge in Rhode Island also blocked any federal spending pause in a separate lawsuit filed by nearly two dozen Democratic states.

In the Washington lawsuit, several groups reported being unable to access promised federal funding even after the memo was rescinded. They ranged from child care in Wisconsin to disability services in West Virginia to a small-business research project on neutron generation and detection.

Ukrainian rare earth: President Donald Trump indicated Monday that he wants to reach an agreement with Ukraine to gain access to the country’s rare earth materials as a condition for continuing U.S. support for its war against Russia.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump complained that the U.S. had sent more in military and economic assistance to Ukraine than its European partners. “We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earth and other things,” he said.

Trump suggested that he’s received word from the Ukrainian government that they’d be willing to make a deal to give the U.S. access to the elements critical to the modern high-tech economy.

Trump, who has said he’d bring about a rapid end to the war, said talks are ongoing to halt the conflict.

Ohio train derailment: A lawsuit alleging for the first time that people died because of the disastrous 2023 East Palestine train derailment was announced on Monday’s second anniversary of the toxic crash near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border amid a flurry of new litigation.

On Monday, Vice President JD Vance visited the small community he used to represent as a senator and toured the cleanup with President Donald Trump’s newly confirmed head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin; Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine; and other dignitaries. He told a gathering of first responders and local elected officials that the town “will not be forgotten.”

The newly filed lawsuit contains the first seven wrongful-death claims filed against Norfolk Southern railroad — including the death of a 1-week-old baby. It also says the railroad and its contractors botched the cleanup while officials at the EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off on it and failed to adequately warn residents about the health risks.

Haiti violence: Armed gangs in Haiti attacked a neighborhood that’s home to most of the country’s elite and had been largely untouched by criminals, and police have demanded help repelling the assault that has killed at least 40 people.

“It’s been eight days since Kenscoff has been under attack,” Mayor Jean Massillon told The Associated Press on Monday. He blamed the attack on the Viv Ansanm gang, with gunmen going home to home and indiscriminately firing.

“They have surrounded the area,” Massillon said as he called for reinforcements.

The dead include pastors, teachers and children.

Gangs already control 85% of Port-au-Prince, the capital.

Quakes in Greece: Authorities deployed emergency rescue crews to Greece’s volcanic island of Santorini on Monday as hundreds of people scrambled to leave after a spike in seismic activity raised concerns about a potentially powerful earthquake.

Schools on four islands were also to shutter through Friday.

Precautions were ordered on several nearby Aegean islands, all popular summer vacation destinations, after more than 200 undersea quakes were recorded in the area over the past three days.