Donald J. Trump claims he has a team of deep-pocketed investors ready to buy TikTok, the wildly popular app at the centre of a tense standoff between Washington and Beijing.
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, the former president and 2024 Republican frontrunner said, “I have a group of very wealthy people wanting to buy it… I’ll tell you in about two weeks.”
He didn’t name names or give details. But his comments suggest renewed interest in keeping TikTok in the hands of US owners if Beijing agrees.
“I think President Xi will probably do it,” Trump said, referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping. That decision, however, rests with China’s government, which has the final say on whether TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, can sell its prized asset.
TikTok has faced pressure in the US for more than a year. Lawmakers accuse it of posing a national security risk, claiming American user data could fall into the hands of the Chinese state a charge TikTok strongly denies.
In response, Congress passed a law last year demanding that ByteDance either sell TikTok or face a nationwide ban. That law was set to take effect in January, but enforcement has been postponed three times.
The latest deadline gives ByteDance until 17 September to strike a deal. Trump himself has been behind those delays, signing executive orders to hold off the ban a move that has drawn fire from both Republicans and Democrats.
“What he’s doing now is going against the will of Congress,” said one senior Senate aide, speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the matter.
The legal back-and-forth has also seen TikTok take its fight to court. The company challenged the law’s constitutionality but lost its appeal in the US Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Trump’s stance on TikTok has shifted. While he once called for a full ban during his first term, he’s since embraced the app as a tool to reach younger voters. “It helped me a lot in this campaign,” he recently admitted at a rally.
A previous attempt to sell TikTok to a US firm collapsed in April, reportedly due to tensions over tariffs Trump had re-imposed on China. It remains unclear whether the new buyer Trump hinted at is connected to that earlier deal.
TikTok has not publicly commented on Trump’s latest remarks. The company, which boasts over 150 million users in the US, has said it remains committed to protecting data and operating transparently.
