Trump & TikTok: Billionaires Eye Purchase
Just weeks after extending the deadline for its sale for a third time, President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he has found a buyer for TikTok’s U.S. operations.
The popular social media app has been under intense pressure due to a law passed in 2024 that requires its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the platform or face a nationwide ban. The legislation stems from bipartisan concern in Washington that the Chinese government could access the data of American users or use the app to influence public opinion.
“We have a buyer for TikTok,” Trump told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on her “Sunday Morning Futures” program. He suggested that the deal would still require approval from Beijing. “I’ll need probably China approval and I think President Xi will probably do it.”
When pressed for more details, Trump remained vague. He added that, “It’s a group of very wealthy people,” and said he would reveal their names in “on about two weeks.” He did not provide any additional information.
.@POTUS: “We have a buyer for TikTok… I’ll need probably China approval and I think President Xi will probably do it… It’s a group of very wealthy people.” pic.twitter.com/N8tWYfKjYg
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 29, 2025
This announcement comes after a period of intense negotiation and political maneuvering. The divest-or-ban law, passed by Congress in 2024, gave ByteDance a 270 day window to sell TikTok. That deadline was extended for a third time in mid June, pushing the new date to September 17 and allowing the app’s 170 million American users to continue accessing the platform for now.
According to several reports, a deal was nearly reached in early April. That agreement would have separated TikTok’s U.S. operations from ByteDance, with a group of American investors led by the tech company Oracle and including asset manager Blackstone and entrepreneur Michael Dell taking a majority stake. However, the transaction reportedly stalled after Trump announced a new wave of steep trade tariffs, particularly targeting China.
More recently, after the two countries agreed on a “general framework” to normalize trade relations in early June, Beijing has appeared more willing to approve certain exports. This could clear a path for the sensitive algorithms and technology that underpin TikTok to be included in a sale.
Despite the geopolitical turmoil, TikTok’s popularity in the United States remains immense. The social network boasts 170 million users, including 7.5 million business accounts ranging from large corporations to small and medium sized enterprises. According to the specialist website Appfigures, TikTok is currently the second most downloaded app in the United States on Android phones, just behind ChatGPT.
What happens next—especially whether Trump’s mystery buyer is real or viable—remains unclear. But with the September deadline approaching, the political and economic stakes surrounding TikTok’s fate are growing.