US President Donald Trump has stated that he has identified a buyer for the US arm of the Chinese short-video app TikTok but won’t provide the details for another two weeks. Trump noted that the ByteDance-owned app will be purchased in the US by a “group of very wealthy people” during a recent interview with Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.
“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,” Trump added in the interview.
The US President had also shown his inclination to extend the deadline for the TikTok ban for the third consecutive time, which would give the company time to sell its US assets within 90 days beyond 19 June.
As per Bloomberg, a deal was close to being struck for the US arm of TikTok before Trump announced his so-called reciprocal tariffs in April. The deal was reportedly being advanced by a consortium of US investors, which included the likes of Oracle Corp., Blackstone Inc., and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Since the announcement of tariffs, however, there has been little movement on the sale of TikTok as tensions between the US and China rose over tariff negotiations.
Why is TikTok on the lookout for a US buyer?
A bipartisan law was passed by the US Congress last year required the sale of TikTok to US buyers or a ban on the popular social media app owing to national security concerns arising from its Chinese connections. The app was briefly banned in the US before Trump took office, but the Republican leader quickly gave an extension that allowed it to operate in the US.
Notably, the scrutiny on TikTok had begun during Trump’s first term when the Republican leader sought a ban on the app. Since then, however, he has reversed his position as he believes that TikTok helped him win support with young voters during the elections last year.
“I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said in an interview with NBC in May.
