Donald Trump said a group of “very wealthy people” are prepared to buy TikTok’s U.S. operations, but he’s keeping their names under wraps—for now.
“We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way,” Donald Trump said during a June 29 interview on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures. “I think I’ll probably need China’s approval. I think President Xi [Jinping] will probably do it.”
Trump added that the identities of the prospective buyers would be revealed “in about two weeks,” a familiar phrase in his political playbook.
Throughout his presidency and beyond, President Trump has frequently leaned on the “two weeks” timeline when teasing major decisions.
He used it to forecast tax reform, announce new tariffs, unveil healthcare plans, and even hint at military action in his most recent strikes on Iran.
The sale of TikTok’s U.S. business has become a geopolitical tug-of-war.
A law passed in 2024 requires ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, to sell its American operations to a non-Chinese entity or face a ban over national security concerns.
The law followed years of scrutiny over TikTok’s data handling and ties to Beijing. On January 18, 2025, TikTok briefly went dark in the U.S. after being pulled from Apple’s App Store and Google Play.
The blackout lasted around 12 hours before Trump, then President-elect extended the deadline and signed an executive order delaying the ban.
Trump has now postponed the ban three times, most recently pushing the deadline to September 17, 2025, to allow more time for a deal to materialize.
Earlier negotiations to transfer ownership to a U.S.-led group fell apart after China objected to Trump’s new tariffs and refused to allow the sale of TikTok’s core algorithm.
Chinese officials have made it clear that the recommendation engine, which powers TikTok’s content feed, is off-limits.
Any final sale would still require approval from Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Trump expressed confidence that the necessary approval would be granted.