President Donald Trump told Fox News that a group of “very wealthy people” are in place to buy hugely popular video app TikTok, telling Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo that he will unveil the identities of the investors in about two weeks.
He also noted that the deal would likely require approval from the Chinese government but predicted Chinese President Xi Jinping would probably approve it.
His comments mark the latest twist in the long saga of TikTok in the U.S. A ban, or a sale to U.S. interests, of its business Stateside was voted into law by Congress, signed by former president Joe Biden and upheld by the Supreme Court early this year. The legal deadline for the shutdown or sale was Jan. 19, the day before Trump took office. Biden punted to Trump. and the current POTUS, as one of his first acts in office, immediately stayed law in what many considered to be a legally dubious move.
TikTok had shut down very briefly in the U.S. at time before resuming business as usual Trump’s third and latest stay on the ban runs through September 17.
“We have a buyer for TikTok,” Trump told Bartiromo. “I think we’ll probably need China approval and I think President Xi will probably do it.” Asked when he’d reveal the buyers, he said, “I’ll tell you in about two weeks.”
TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance and U.S. policymakers on both sides of the aisle fear that it can be a conduit for the Chinese government to data on millions of U.S. consumers. The ban or sale was based on national securities concerns. TikTok and ByteDance both deny this.
A potential TikTok deal became entangled in broader hostilities in recent months with China amid Trump’s aggressive stance on trade that levied stiff tariffs on Chinese goods. The two countries are currently in a truce with most import tax temporarily lowered as they negotiate a broader trade deal. They said recently they had agreed on a framework.
