In an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that aired on Sunday, President Donald Trump said a TikTok deal would occur soon.
Last year, Congress passed a law requiring TikTok to separate from its parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, or face a permanent ban in the U.S. After multiple extensions, the deadline is now mid-September.
Trump said that in about two weeks, he’ll reveal the names of the “very wealthy people” who were ready to buy the popular app, and that he thinks China’s leader, Xi Jinping, who will need to approve the deal, “will probably do it.”
It’s unclear who the “wealthy people” are, considering every bid has been made by some pretty heavy hitters. The potential to own TikTok has attracted a spate of interested buyers, including a group made up of billionaire Frank McCourt, “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
There are also bids from Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who reportedly has been meeting at the White House recently, AI startup Perplexity, mobile advertising company AppLovin, and Amazon.
“As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement earlier this month.
