US President Donald Trump expressed confidence on Sunday that a deal concerning TikTok would be reached before the April 5 deadline for its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the app or face a ban in the United States.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump highlighted the significant interest in acquiring the popular short-video platform. “We have a lot of people that want to buy TikTok. We’re dealing with China also on it, because they may have something to do with it,” he said, adding “I’d like to see TikTok remain alive.”
Trump also revealed that the U.S. was in talks with four groups looking to purchase TikTok, which boasts 170 million American users. However, China rejected Trump’s suggestion that it might reduce tariffs to facilitate the sale of TikTok to a non-Chinese company.
A U.S. law mandates that TikTok must divest from ByteDance due to concerns about national security, particularly the risk of China exploiting the app to spy on Americans or influence U.S. public opinion. This law, which took effect on January 19, was delayed by Trump to allow the app to continue operating, but the extension is set to expire on April 5.
Trump expressed confidence that a deal would be reached before the deadline, stating, “There’ll be a deal with TikTok, I’m pretty certain,” and suggested that he would not extend the deadline if no agreement was reached.
Trump had previously attempted to ban TikTok over national security concerns during his first term but has since softened his stance. “Selfishly speaking, I won the young vote by 36 points. Republicans generally don’t do very well with the young crowd, and I think a lot of it could have been TikTok,” he said.
