President Donald Trump said Sunday he was confident of reaching a deal on TikTok ahead of the April 5 deadline for its Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the popular short video app or see it banned in the United States.
“We have a lot of potential buyers. There’s tremendous interest in TikTok,” Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One. “We have a lot of people that want to buy TikTok. We’re dealing with China also on it, because they may have something to do with it,” he said, adding “I’d like to see TikTok remain alive.”
Trump said this month the United States was in talks with four groups interested in acquiring the platform, which has 170 American million users. A US law has ordered TikTok to divest from ByteDance or be banned in the United States, enacted over concerns that Beijing could exploit the app to spy on Americans or covertly influence US public opinion.
The law took effect on January 19, a day before Trump’s inauguration, but he quickly announced a delay that has allowed it to continue to operate. That delay is set to expire on April 5. “There’ll be a deal with TikTok, I’m pretty certain,” Trump said when asked if he would extend the deadline if there was no deal.
Trump attempted to ban TikTok in the United States on national security concerns during his first stint in the White House but has warmed up to it. “Selfishly speaking, I won the young vote by 36 points. Republicans generally don’t do very well with the young crowd, and I think a lot of it could have been TikTok,” he said.
