On Thursday, President Donald Trump confirmed that the U.S. is nearing a deal to spare TikTok from a potential ban, with ongoing discussions involving multiple investors and a possible tariff agreement with China.
What Happened: During remarks aboard Air Force One, Trump said, “We’re very close to a deal with a very good group of people,” reported Bloomberg.
Trump also reiterated that he would be willing to offer tariff relief as part of the negotiation process with China to help secure approval for the eventual sale of TikTok.
“You have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say, we’ll approve a deal but will you do something on the tariff? The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have,” he stated.
However, he admitted that he had “no knowledge” of whether Chinese authorities would approve the approach.
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Why It Matters: TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media app owned by ByteDance, has faced increasing scrutiny over national security concerns related to data privacy and its algorithm.
The president’s latest comments follow discussions with a consortium of U.S. investors, including Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX), Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) and Andreessen Horowitz, looking to acquire the app.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has also reportedly made a last-minute surprise bid to buy the entire U.S. operation of TikTok.
Image via Shutterstock
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