President Donald Trump has announced that a group of wealthy investors is prepared to acquire TikTok, the social media giant entangled in a long-running dispute over national security concerns.
Speaking during an appearance on Fox News, POTUS hinted that the deal was taking shape behind closed doors. “I’ll tell you in about two weeks,” he said, leaving the door open to speculation about who exactly is behind the prospective purchase.
The sale, however, faces several major hurdles before it can become a reality. Any agreement would still require approval from Chinese regulators. Trump expressed optimism that Chinese President Xi Jinping “will probably do it,” although past negotiations have been derailed by tensions between Washington and Beijing. Earlier this year, the White House and Chinese officials clashed over tariffs, leading a previous attempt to transfer TikTok into American ownership to collapse.
Despite Congress passing a law in April 2024 that mandated the sale of TikTok to protect user data from potential Chinese surveillance, enforcement has been repeatedly delayed. The most recent extension pushed the deadline to September 17, giving TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, more time to strike a deal. Trump has used executive actions to postpone the law’s implementation, drawing pushback from lawmakers who accuse him of sidestepping congressional authority.
While Trump was a vocal critic of TikTok during his first term, he has since come to appreciate its power as a campaign tool and supports keeping it available to American users. Still, he insists that a sale is necessary to address security fears, even though TikTok has consistently denied allegations that it shares US user data with Chinese authorities.
The legal wrangling has reached the highest levels of the judiciary. TikTok challenged the constitutionality of the law forcing its sale but ultimately lost its appeal in the Supreme Court. As Trump hints at yet another potential buyout, the saga over the app’s future shows no sign of ending soon.