President Donald Trump is reportedly negotiating with multiple potential buyers for the U.S. division of China’s TikTok.
On Sunday, President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he has been negotiating with four different possible buyers for the U.S. sector of TikTok, and that a deal would likely come “soon,” according to a report by Bloomberg.
“We’re dealing with four different groups, and a lot of people want it,” President Trump said.
While the president did not reveal the names of the potential buyers, he reportedly noted that “all four are good.”
Last week, President Trump said he was open to the idea of extending the deadline for a deal — possibly moving it to past April 5 — if necessary, but believed an agreement would be finalized by next month, Bloomberg noted.
As Breitbart News reported, previous bipartisan legislation had set a January 19 deadline for TikTok’s Chinese parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, to either sell the app’s U.S. services or be banned in the United States.
On January 19 — one day before Trump took office — TikTok went dark for American users, who were faced with a message that read, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.”
The message further explained that a “law banning TikTok” had been enacted in the United States, but went on to praise then-incoming President Trump for having “indicated that he will work” with the social media company to find “a solution to reinstate TikTok.”
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.
In the meantime, President Trump has reportedly been working on brokering a sale that would see to it that TikTok’s U.S. services are not China-owned.
Notably, U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been sounding the alarm with regards to TikTok for some time, citing a national security risk — among other issues — due to the app’s parent company being beholden to the Chinese Communist Party.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
