President Donald Trump says the United States has found a buyer for TikTok.
In an interview with Fox News that aired on Sunday, the president said the buyer was a group of “very wealthy people” that he would reveal in “about two weeks” — his favorite timeline.
Trump added that he would “probably” need China’s approval for a sale to go ahead, but appeared confident that Chinese leader Xi Jinping would back it.
Trump has stepped in three times so far to extend a deadline for TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to find a new buyer or effectively cease operating in the United States.
An executive order on June 19 extended the deadline to September 17.
In a statement at the time, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration wanted to ensure US users would continue to be able to access the app.
“As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark,” she said. “This extension will last 90 days, which the Administration will spend working to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure.”
TikTok missed its original January 19 deadline and briefly shut down for millions of Americans before Trump intervened.
“Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now,” a message on the app read for affected users. “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”
A number of high-profile figures have previously expressed interest in purchasing the platform, including “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary and former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Trump also previously said he would support his once-staunch ally, Elon Musk, if he wanted to buy the app.
Musk said in January that he has been “against a TikTok ban for a long time,” adding that he believed it “goes against freedom of speech.” In February, however, the Tesla CEO told the WELT Economic Summit that he had not made a bid for the app.
“I don’t have any plans for what would I do if I had TikTok,” he added.
