The unending saga between President Donald Trump and TikTok may finally get some closure. In an interview with Fox News‘ Maria Bartiromo, the US president announced that there’s a buyer secured for TikTok.
“We have a buyer for TikTok by the way,” Trump said in the interview. “I think I’ll need probably China approval and I think President Xi [Jinping] will probably do it.” When asked to identify the buyer, Trump only cryptically revealed that it was a “group of very wealthy people,” which would be announced in “about two weeks.”
The uncertain fate of TikTok began when Trump signed an executive order to extend a deadline to ban the app from US-based app stores. The initial extension came shortly after Trump took office for his second term in January and was later pushed back another 75 days to April. The decision was delayed once again in June, but for an extra 90 days instead, for a new mid-September deadline. As the future of TikTok remains in a state of uncertainty, Trump said the extensions were “no big deal” during the interview with Fox News. More than 170 million active US users are awaiting a final decision on TikTok, which is developed by the Beijing-based ByteDance that’s facing pressure to either sell its app or have it banned due to data privacy and “national security” concerns.