Trump signals possible imminent deal on U.S. buyers for Chinese TikTok social media platform

In 2024, a bipartisan Congress voted to ban the popular social media app TikTok in the U.S. unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sold a majority ownership stake in the platform to U.S. government-approved American buyers, citing real concerns over China’s communist regime using the app to manipulate and spy upon U.S. citizen users.

On Friday, President Trump told reporters that a deal for American buyers to purchase TikTok from ByteDance was “pretty much” finalized, assuming both the U.S. and Chinese governments signed off on the arrangement, according to Fox Business.

The announcement of a possible deal being close at hand came just a few weeks after Trump ordered a third extension of the deadline to complete a sale and avoid banning the app that has been forestalled since January.

TikTok deal may be imminent

The Guardian reported that President Trump, speaking to reporters onboard Air Force One on Friday, said, “I think we’re gonna start Monday or Tuesday … talking to China — perhaps President Xi or one of his representatives — but we would, we pretty much have a deal.”

Those talks could personally involve Trump and Xi, either in the U.S. or China, as both leaders cordially invited each other to visit their respective countries last month.

The alleged proposal for U.S. buyers to obtain a majority stake in TikTok, which would likely need to meet the approval of both the U.S. and Chinese governments, would be mutually beneficial to both nations, according to Trump.

Asked about his level of confidence in China signing off on the deal, the president replied, “I’m not confident, but I think so. President Xi and I have a great relationship, and I think it’s good for them. I think the deal is good for China and it’s good for us.”

Trump has been buying time for a deal to happen

Per Fox Business, President Trump’s remarks on Friday echo what he told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo about a prospective TikTok deal during an interview last Sunday, in which he suggested that a group of “very wealthy people” were prepared to make an offer to buy out ByteDance’s majority stake in the hugely popular social media platform.

“We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way,” Trump revealed at that time. “I think I’ll need probably China’s approval. I think President Xi will probably do it.”

The TikTok ban passed by Congress last year was supposed to take effect on January 19, but Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office to extend that deadline by 75 days.

A deal was reportedly nearly finalized in April but was scuttled by China at the last moment in retaliation against Trump’s tariffs, which prompted a second extension of the deadline that month, followed by a third extension from Trump in June that will last until mid-September, presumably to allow the current alleged deal to be fully approved by all interested parties.

White House confirms TikTok deal talks are “ongoing”

CNN reported last Monday that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt informed reporters during the daily briefing, “Discussions with China regarding the sale of TikTok have been ongoing at the highest level, and they will continue.”

“As you know, we have another 90-day extension, and it’s just to continue to work out this deal and make sure that TikTok stays on for the American people — that’s the president’s main goal in this, while protecting their privacy and their security,” she added of the estimated 170 million Americans who use TikTok for communication, entertainment, news, and even to make a living in some cases.

There has been broad speculation from CNN and other media outlets about who the prospective U.S. buyers of TikTok might be, but their identities have been kept closely guarded to this point and likely won’t be revealed publicly until the deal is essentially complete.

The post Trump signals possible imminent deal on U.S. buyers for Chinese TikTok social media platform appeared first on Conservative Institute.