- Chinese owner ByteDance to sell popular short-video app by April 5 or face US ban
- Trump says US is in talks with four groups interested in acquiring platform
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Sunday he was confident of reaching a deal on TikTok before an April 5 deadline for its Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the popular short-video app or face a ban in the United States.
“We have a lot of potential buyers. There's a lot of interest in TikTok,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
“We have a lot of people who want to buy TikTok. We're also talking to China because they might have something to do with it,” he said, adding, “I'd like to see TikTok live on.”
China on Thursday rejected Trump's suggestion that it could offer tariff cuts to win Beijing's approval to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese company.
Trump said this month that the United States was in talks with four groups interested in acquiring the platform, which has 170 million American users.
The US law requires TikTok to divest from ByteDance or be banned in the United States. It was passed over concerns that Beijing could use the app to spy on Americans or covertly influence public opinion in the US.
The law went into effect on January 19, the day before Trump's inauguration, but he quickly announced a delay that allowed it to continue to operate.
The deferment period expires on April 5.
“I'm pretty sure there will be a TikTok deal,” Trump said when asked if he would extend the deadline if there was no deal.
During his first stint in the White House, Trump tried to ban TikTok in the United States over national security concerns, but later came around to the idea.
“Selfishly speaking, I won the youth vote by 36 points. Republicans generally don't do well with the young crowd, and I think a lot of that may have been TikTok,” he said.
