President Donald Trump has announced that he has a group of “very wealthy people” prepared to purchase the popular video-sharing app TikTok, pending approval from the Chinese government. The identities of the potential buyers has not been disclosed.
CNBC reports that in an interview aired on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, President Donald Trump disclosed that he has a group of wealthy individuals ready to acquire TikTok, whose identities he plans to reveal in approximately two weeks. The president added that the deal would likely require approval from Beijing, but expressed confidence that Chinese President Xi Jinping would give the green light.
The fate of TikTok in the United States has been uncertain since the passage of a law in 2024 that aimed to ban the platform unless its Chinese owner, ByteDance, divested from it. The legislation was motivated by concerns over the Chinese government’s potential ability to manipulate content and access sensitive data from American users — transforming the popular social media platform into a psychological weapon for the hostile country.
Earlier this month, Trump extended the deadline for ByteDance to divest from TikTok’s U.S. business for the third time since the Supreme Court upheld the TikTok law just days before his second presidential inauguration in January. The new deadline is set for September 17. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA) was originally slated to take effect on January 19, after which app store operators and internet service providers would face penalties for supporting TikTok.
In anticipation of the original deadline, TikTok went dark in the U.S., but was restored after Trump provided assurances on the extension. The president, who credited the app with boosting his support among young voters in the last presidential election, has maintained his desire to see the platform remain operational under new ownership.
Several potential buyers have expressed interest in acquiring TikTok, including Trump insiders such as Oracle’s Larry Ellison and firms like AppLovin and Perplexity AI. However, it remains unclear whether ByteDance would be willing to sell the platform, as any potential divestiture would likely require approval from the Chinese government.
A deal that would have spun off TikTok’s U.S. operations and allowed ByteDance to retain a minority position was in the works in April, but was derailed by the announcement of Donald Trump’s tariffs on China, according to a Reuters report from that month. The president had previously proposed a deal in which American stakeholders would buy the company and then sell a 50 percent stake to the U.S. government as part of a joint venture.
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Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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