Negotiators from the two countries reached a framework deal this week to preserve the US operations of the app under a national security law.
(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump indicated he could further extend his trade truce with Chinese President Xi Jinping when the leaders speak on Friday, in addition to brokering a sale for TikTok’s US operations.
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“We’re pretty close to a deal,” Trump said at a press conference alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “We may do an extension with China, but it’s an extension based on the same terms that we have right now, which are pretty good terms.”
Trump said the deal on TikTok would be done “in conjunction with China” and that the US is getting “a ‘fee plus’ for just making the deal.”
The president said the new version of TikTok would be “owned by all-American investors” and “companies that love America” but did not answer directly a question about whether the app would require a new algorithm.
Trump is returning to Washington and on Friday is slated to hold a call with Xi at 9 a.m. Washington time, the first direct engagement between the leaders of the world’s largest economies since June — with the future of ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok app high on the agenda.
Negotiators from the two countries reached a framework deal earlier this week to preserve the US operations of the app under a national security law.
Under the arrangement, the US operations would be acquired by a consortium that includes Oracle Corp., Andreessen Horowitz and private equity firm Silver Lake Management LLC, according to people familiar with the matter, but the full scope of the plan is not clear and officials have said that Trump and Xi will need to finalize it during their conversation.
Trump has said the US arm could be worth tens of billions of dollars. “I hate to see value like that thrown out the window,” he said Tuesday in Washington before departing to the UK.
A national security law signed by Trump’s predecessor calls for ByteDance to divest its American TikTok operations or see the popular video-sharing app shuttered in the US. Trump has signed several executive orders extending the law’s deadline — though his legal footing for flouting the law and allowing the app to continue operating is not fully clear.
Trump, once a TikTok skeptic, has grown to embrace the app, crediting it with helping to bolster his outreach to young voters in the 2024 election.
