Trump says TikTok deal will be discussed with China soon

President Trump said a potential TikTok deal will start being discussed early next week with China.

Mr. Trump said the United States “pretty much” has a deal on another party buying the popular social media app.

“We think we probably have to get it approved by China,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One Friday. “Not definitely, but probably.”

The president extended the deadline in June for the Chinese-owned app to be sold for another 90 days. The new deadline is mid-September.

It was the third extension for the sale of the short-form video app signed during his second administration. It stopped the app from being banned in the U.S. for not having an American owner after then-President Biden last April signed a law that mandated the app’s owner be sold. 

The argument for the banning was that the country’s national security was at risk due to the app’s Chinese owners. The Supreme Court upheld the law.

He said last month that he has found new buyers for the app, which is owned by ByteDance.

“We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way,” Mr. Trump told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo. “I think I’ll need, probably, China approval and I think President Xi [Jinping] will probably do it.”

He said then he would reveal the buyer in two weeks and that it was “a group of very wealthy people.”