Trump reveals group of 'wealthy people' wants to buy TikTok in U.S.
1 of 2 | A group of "very wealthy people" wants to buy the Chinese-owned TikTok social media app that is facing a ban in the United States, President Donald Trump said. File photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
June 29 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump said a group of "very wealthy people" wants to buy the Chinese-owned TikTok social media app that is facing a ban in the United States.
During an interview Friday with Maria Bartiromo that appeared Sunday on Fox News, Trump said, "We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way," declining to name the potential buyers.
"I'll tell you in about two weeks," he added.
The president said he believes Chinese President Xi Jinping "will probably" approve the deal for U.S. ownership of the video service, which was founded in September 2016.
President Joe Biden signed a law in 2024 requiring TikTok to be blocked in the United States unless its parent company, ByteDance, sold it to a non-Chinese company over concerns that sensitive user data could be acquired by the Chinese government.
The U.S. Supreme Court voted unanimously on Jan. 17 that TikTok must be banned from U.S. app stores unless the company divested from the platform and sold to an American company by Jan. 19.
Biden said he didn't want to intervene in the final days of his presidency, the app went dark around 10:30 p.m. ET on Jan. 18 and the app ceased to appear on Apple and Google's app stores.
The 170 million U.S. users and around 1 million creators lost access to the app for at least one day of the 23 million new videos uploaded daily. Those using the app spend about an hour a day looking at some of the 23 million new clips uploaded daily, with teens using it for 2-3 hours a day, according to Exploding Topics.
But the next day, the company restored service after Donald Trump said he would pause the deadline for 75 days when he was sworn in as president on Jan. 20, and signed an executive order to do so on his first day in office. He has since pushed off the deadline two more times, with it now delayed until Sept. 17.
In April, the White House said it was close to a deal in which 50% of the app would be owned by an American company. Negotiations ended when Trump announced tariffs on goods coming from China to the United States. Trump proposed 134% tariffs on most goods but it has been scaled back to 30% for some items exempt.
During his first presidency, on Aug. 6, 2020, Trump signed an executive order "action must be taken to address the threat posed by one mobile application in particular, TikTok" from China.
Trump later credited TikTok with gaining more young voters in the 2024 election and seemed to soften on his stance. ByteDance has also been reluctant to turn over rights to the app's algorithm.
It is the fifth-most social network with 1.6 billion users in the world behind Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp, according to Statistica.
In April, Adweek compiled a list of suitors for U.S. rights, including Applovin, Amazon, Oracle, Blackstone and Andreessen Horowitz. None confirmed negotiations to Addwek.
"It does not feel like these are serious bids for TikTok," David Arslanian, managing director of Progress Partners, told Adweek. "It is hard to imagine any of these companies, like Amazon and Oracle, successfully operating just a piece of TikTok."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
33 minutes ago
- The Hill
Iran open to nuclear talks if US rules out further attacks, official says
Iran's deputy foreign minister told the BBC on Monday that Tehran's leaders would be willing to resume diplomatic talks over the country's nuclear program if the U.S. agrees it will not launch any additional military strikes. 'We are hearing from Washington, telling us that they want to talk,' Iranian diplomat Majid Takht-Ravanchi said in an interview with the outlet. 'Right now, we are seeking an answer to this question: Are we going to see a repetition of an act of aggression while we are engaging in dialog?' 'They have not made their position clear yet,' he added. The U.S. launched strikes on three key nuclear facilities in Iran on June 21 as Tehran and Israel traded airstrikes, which paused ongoing U.S.-Iranian negotiations on a new nuclear agreement meant to prohibit Iran from obtaining a massive weapon. President Trump and his allies have touted the U.S. military operation as a success that will set back Iran's nuclear capabilities by years and repeatedly pushed back on a leaked initial assessment that questioned the scope of the damage. Trump on Monday denied that he had been in talks with representatives from Iran. 'I am not offering Iran ANYTHING, unlike [former President] Obama, who paid them $Billions under the stupid 'road to a Nuclear Weapon JCPOA (which would now be expired!),' he wrote in a post on Truth Social, adding 'nor am I even talking to them since we totally OBLITERATED their Nuclear Facilities.' Trump upended the Obama-era Iranian nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), during his first term. The U.S. and Iran had been in ongoing negotiations on a new agreement before Israel launched a surprise attack on Tehran's military and nuclear sites June 13. Takht-Ravanchi told the BBC that Iran would 'insist' on being able to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, which leaders there claimed they were doing before the attacks on their program. 'The capacity can be discussed but to say that you should not have enrichment, you should have zero enrichment and if you do not agree with bomb you? That is the law of the jungle,' Takht-Ravanchi said.
Politico
33 minutes ago
- Politico
Trump administration says Harvard risks ‘loss of all federal resources' due to alleged campus antisemitism
The Trump administration formally accused Harvard University of violating federal civil rights laws and failing to mount an appropriate response to alleged campus antisemitism. Monday's notice marked a stark and renewed threat to Harvard's federal funding amid quiet negotiations between the elite school and government authorities that have otherwise been replete with court fights, threats to Harvard's research funding and foreign student enrollment — and the recent possibility of a detente raised by President Donald Trump. 'Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard's relationship with the federal government,' administration officials, including Justice Department civil rights chief Harmeet K. Dhillon, wrote in a letter to Harvard President Alan Garber. 'Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again,' the officials said. Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The institution could also lose federal student aid — one of the most severe consequences a university can face — if it doesn't agree to a resolution. About a fifth of Harvard's undergraduate students rely on a federal grant reserved for low-income students. The notice from the Justice Department's antisemitism task force marked the completion of a civil rights investigation into the university pursued by the Department of Health and Human Services, which, according to the administration, has awarded Harvard more than $794 million in federal financial assistance since the 2023 fiscal year. The government concluded Harvard has been 'in some cases deliberately indifferent, and in others has been a willful participant in anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students, faculty, and staff' since the Israel-Hamas war began Oct. 7, 2023. A 57-page HHS report that accompanied Monday's notice, obtained by POLITICO, detailed what the government said was a 'pattern of unlawful and unchecked discrimination' that included student-on-student harassment, exclusion from campus spaces and institutional-level acceptance of antisemitism. Authorities also acknowledged an effort 'to secure compliance by voluntary means' through extended discussions with Harvard. HHS' civil rights division 'will make additional efforts to persuade Harvard to take appropriate corrective action, including through submission of a voluntary resolution agreement,' the report said. Authorities told Harvard they would refer the matter to the Justice Department 'as soon as possible after the mailing of this Notice absent voluntary compliance.' The Wall Street Journal first reported news of the government findings. The government's latest Harvard threat signals a shift in the administration's tone from just 10 days ago, when Trump declared a 'historic' deal between his administration and Harvard could soon be on the table. 'We have been working closely with Harvard, and it is very possible that a Deal will be announced over the next week or so,' Trump said in a post on Truth Social, the social media site he owns. One administration official expressed cautious optimism about talks last week, saying there was 'a level of trust that Harvard wants to resolve the conflict and we can see a resolution by the end of the month.' Now, that administration official said, Harvard 'hasn't lived up to its end of the bargain.' 'Talk is cheap, and the president isn't in the business of agreeing to deals in name only or falling for empty promises,' the administration official told POLITICO. 'He and his administration remain committed to working with Harvard, but it's a two-way street.' Bianca Quilantan contributed to this report.
Bloomberg
35 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Republicans Agree to Mask $3.8 Trillion of Trump Tax Bill Costs
Senate Republicans are moving forward with a plan to mask the $3.8 trillion cost of extending expiring tax cuts in President Donald Trump's signature economic legislation by using an unprecedented accounting maneuver. GOP senators voted Monday in favor of the plan to count the extension of Trump's 2017 tax cuts as costing nothing, over objections from Democrats and despite concerns raised by economists about the US debt trajectory.
