President Trump said on Sunday that he had a buyer for the U.S. branch of TikTok, the popular Chinese-owned video app that faces a ban over national security concerns.
In an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News that aired on Sunday, Mr. Trump said, “We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way.”
He added that he would need China’s approval, but “I think President Xi will probably do it,” in reference to China’s leader, Xi Jinping.
Mr. Trump did not disclose who the potential buyers were, saying only that it was “a group of very wealthy people.”
He added, “I’ll tell you in about two weeks.”
The fate of TikTok has been unclear for months. A law approved in 2024 required that the app be effectively banned in the United States unless its parent company, ByteDance, sold it to a non-Chinese company, over concerns that sensitive user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government.
While the law called for a sale by January 2025, Mr. Trump has repeatedly declined to enforce the law and extended the deadline three times.
Finding a buyer for TikTok is only one part of reaching a deal to avert a ban of the app in the United States, because the Chinese government will need to signal its approval of any sale.
In April, the White House believed it was close to reaching a deal that would put 50 percent of the app’s ownership in American hands. A draft executive order describing the broad outlines of the deal had been circulated.
But then Mr. Trump announced tariffs on Chinese imports, and ByteDance told the White House that Beijing would not let the deal for TikTok proceed.
It’s unclear whether the deal would comply with the U.S. law on TikTok, if ByteDance chose not to share the app’s algorithm with the U.S. buyers. Private equity firms have been hesitant to invest in a deal without some form of indemnification.
Representatives for Vice President JD Vance, who has been assigned to handle the deal, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. TikTok also could not be immediately reached for comment.
Katie Robertson covers the media industry for The Times. Email: [email protected]
David McCabe is a Times reporter who covers the complex legal and policy issues created by the digital economy and new technologies.
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