Trump: TikTok Sale Deal to Be Finalized by April 5
U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Sunday evening that the deal between Chinese tech company ByteDance and potential buyers for TikTok would be concluded by the deadline of Saturday, April 5.
‘We have a lot of potential buyers,’ Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. ‘There’s tremendous interest in TikTok. I’d like to see TikTok remain alive,’ he added.
TikTok representatives have yet to comment on the President’s statement.
Earlier, Reuters reported that the private equity firm Blackstone was considering a small minority investment in TikTok’s U.S. operations, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
On April 24, 2024, Joe Biden signed into law the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), banning TikTok in the United States as long as it remained under Chinese ownership. U.S. authorities viewed the app as a national security threat, raising concerns that Beijing could use it to influence U.S. public opinion and collect data on Americans.
The law came into effect on January 19, 2025, leading to TikTok's removal from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for U.S. users.
However, just one day later, on January 20, President Trump, on the first day of his second term, signed an executive order granting a 75-day non-enforcement period of PAFACA, allowing TikTok to resume operations temporarily.
As The Gaze previously reported, Trump mentioned in January that Microsoft was in talks to acquire TikTok.