President Donald Trump said that the U.S. is nearing the presentation of a proposal aimed at stopping the potential ban of the Chinese social media app TikTok in America, according to Bloomberg.
"we're almost at an agreement with a really excellent team," trump told journalists while traveling on air force one.
The head of the White House stated that he was ready to propose cutting tariffs as part of getting China’s help with facilitating the potential sale of TikTok by its Beijing-headquartered owner, ByteDance. However, Trump also cautioned that he did not know if the Chinese government would agree to this proposal.
He stated, 'With TikTok, you're looking at a scenario where China might likely agree to an approval if asked about a deal, but then they could inquire about adjustments to the tariffs. These tariffs provide us significant leverage during negotiations. They certainly do,'.
People who have been briefed say that Trump voiced his opinion one day following an assessment of a pitch put forward by a group of U.S.-based investors. This coalition comprised Oracle Corp., Blackstone Inc., along with the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, positioning itself as the frontrunner.
As stated by two people, the search for a purchaser under the Trump administration is currently spearheaded by U.S. Vice President JD Vance, with an initial cutoff date scheduled for Saturday, April 5th. Nevertheless, plans remain fluid, and the group is still in early phases of discussion. Despite this, over the past few weeks, Trump has openly mentioned his intention to prolong the deadline for finalizing the agreement.
As per the proposal examined by the US president, new overseas investors would hold a 50% stake in TikTok’s operations within the United States, which would operate as an independent entity separate from ByteDance. Current stakeholders would retain approximately 30% ownership of this venture.
Sources indicated that ByteDance’s ownership share in the new U.S. entity would be just under 20%. This adjustment allows the firm to adhere to an American law enacted last year, mandating firms either halt activities within the United States or risk being barred from operating there.
The plan involves keeping TikTok’s powerful algorithm under ByteDance and granting a license to this technology for the new U.S.-based entity. Oracle will acquire a minor share in the firm and offer security guarantees.
What preceded this
At first, ByteDance had until January 19 to divest itself of TikTok. This requirement came from legislation enacted by a cross-party group and signed into law by former US President Joe Biden in 2024.
These steps were taken as a reaction to worries that the Chinese government might utilize TikTok to collect sensitive data on American citizens or to manipulate them via the app’s content algorithms.
Upon his return to the White House, however, President Donald Trump prolonged the deadline for the application’s sale to provide additional time for discussions.