Trump Announces Buyer for TikTok, Saving App from Ban
According to President Donald Trump, the U.S. finally found a buyer for TikTok.
While discussing global trade deals with Fox News, Trump pivoted the conversation to TikTok, boasting that he has finally found a buyer who could keep the video-sharing app from being banned in the United States.
“We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way,” Trump said. “I think I’ll need, probably, China’s approval, and I think President Xi [Jinping] will probably do it.”
Maria Bartiromo then asked Trump, “Who’s the buyer?” Trump responded, “I’ll tell you in about two weeks.”
“[They are] very, very wealthy people,” Trump added. “It’s a group of very wealthy people. But what I want to do, and what I will do, sometime prior to the ninth, is we’ll send a letter to all these countries. There are 200 countries, you can’t talk to all of them, no matter how many people you have.”
The future of one of the most globally popular social media platforms has been in peril since Jan. 19, 2025, when it officially became illegal for American companies to host or distribute TikTok in the U.S. while it remained under the control of its Chinese owner, ByteDance.
However, Trump has enacted two executive orders in his second term extending the deadline for the ban. On June 17, it was unveiled that Trump planned to extend the life of TikTok in the U.S. again, giving the platform another window to find a buyer.
“As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to CBS News. “This extension will last 90 days, which the Administration will spend working to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure.”
