In an interview on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, US President Donald Trump said that he has a buyer for TikTok. He called the group wealthy people without revealing more except that he would make their identities known “in about two weeks.”
Trump also said that he would likely need “China approval” for the sale, “and I think President Xi (Jinping) will probably do it.”
“We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way,” Trump said, as quoted by France 24.
TikTok is a social media platform and is owned by China-based internet company ByteDance. A federal law is required for TikTok’s sale or ban on national security grounds, which was due to take effect the day before Trump’s inauguration on January 20. But the Republican, whose 2024 poll campaign relied heavily on social media and who has said that he is fond of TikTok, put the ban on pause.
Trump in mid-June extended a deadline for the popular video-sharing application by another 90 days to find a non-Chinese buyer or be banned in the United States. According to France 24, the tech experts described the TikTok kerfuffle as a symbol of the heated US-China tech rivalry.
Amid Trump’s long support for a ban or divestment, he reversed his position and vowed to defend the platform—which boasts almost two billion global users—after coming to believe it helped him win young voters’ support in the November election.
“I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump told NBC News in early May. “If it needs an extension, I would be willing to give it an extension.”
After two extensions that push the deadline to June 19, the US president has extended it for a third time.
According to France 24, ByteDance has confirmed talks with the US government, saying key matters needed to be resolved and that any deal would be “subject to approval under Chinese law.”
