President Donald Trump says a deal for the sale of the U.S. division of China’s TikTok app to a non-Chinese buyer will arrive before Saturday’s deadline.
“We have a lot of potential buyers — there’s tremendous interest in TikTok,” President Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, adding, “I’d like to see TikTok remain alive,” according to a report by Reuters.
In January, President Trump set the deadline to find a non-Chinese buyer for TikTok’s U.S. operations for Saturday, April 5, or else be banned in the United States.
TikTok, used by 170 million Americans, has been under fire by U.S. lawmakers citing a national security risk — among other issues — due to the app’s parent company ByteDance being beholden to the Chinese Communist Party.
While the identity of potential buyers remains unclear, private equity firm Blackstone is looking into making a small minority investment in TikTok’s U.S. faction, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Blackstone is reportedly discussing joining ByteDance’s current non-Chinese shareholders, led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic.
Last week, President Trump pointed out the role China will play if a sale to a non-Chinese buyer is successful, saying, “Maybe I’ll give them a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done.”
As Peter Schweizer explained in an article for Breitbart News, the deal is further complicated by China’s unwillingness to open up the TikTok algorithm to western eyes:
Very few are talking about what the communists in Beijing think of the looming TikTok decision. China is wielding TikTok as a weapon to wage unrestricted warfare on the United States. This is why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) views TikTok as a “modern day Trojan Horse” and classified its powerful algorithm as a top secret “national security asset.”
TikTok’s constant stream of short and over-stimulating videos makes for a powerfully addictive source of propaganda. In a restricted Chinese academic journal, Colonel Dai Xu, a professor at China’s top military academy, wrote that the real battle between the United States and China is “information-driven mental warfare.” Another CCP journal stated, “Younger [People’s Liberation Army] propagandists increasingly realize the popularity of short videos online, and TikTok is the best example of this so far.”
As Breitbart News reported, TikTok went dark for American users on January 19 — one day before President Trump was sworn into office — as ByteDance did not meet the requirements of a U.S. law demanding the Chinese company either sell the app’s U.S. services or be banned in the United States.
American users opened the Chinese platform to find a message that read, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now,” explaining that a law to ban the app had been enacted in the United States.
“Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now,” the message continued, adding, “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.”
On his first day in office, President Trump issued an executive order offering a 75-day reprieve on the ban that directed the DOJ not to enforce penalties against app stores and other service providers for working with TikTok during that time period.
Earlier this month, the president told reporters he was negotiating a sale with multiple potential buyers for TikTok’s U.S. division, and that a deal would likely come “soon.”
“We’re dealing with four different groups,” President Trump said at the time. “A lot of people want it.”
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
