President Donald Trump has announced that a buyer has been identified for the United States operations of TikTok, the social media platform owned by China’s ByteDance Ltd.
Trump however said he will not reveal further details for another two weeks.
“We have a buyer for Tiktok, by the way. I think I’ll need probably China approval and I think President Xi will probably do it,” he said, referring to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, in an interview on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. “It’s a group of very wealthy people.” The interview, which aired Sunday, was taped on Friday.
Trump earlier stated that he would extend the deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations for a third time, granting the company an additional 90 days beyond the previous cutoff of June 19.
Last year, US Congress passed a law requiring TikTok’s U.S. operations to be sold due to national security concerns, granting the president authority to issue one extension.
However, the deal has seen little progress as broader U.S.-China tensions, especially over tariff talks, have slowed negotiations.
The White House did not respond to requests for further information regarding Trump’s recent comments.