Group of wealthy people to buy TikTok, Trump says

In a Fox News interview aired on Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he has identified a buyer for the short-video app TikTok, describing them as a group of "very wealthy people." Trump stated that he plans to reveal their identities in approximately two weeks.

During the interview on "Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo," Trump indicated that the proposed deal would likely require approval from China, and he anticipated that Chinese President Xi Jinping would grant it.

Earlier this month, the U.S. president had extended the deadline for China-based ByteDance to sell TikTok's U.S. assets to September 17, despite a law that mandated a sale or shutdown if no significant progress was made.

A previous deal earlier in the spring would have spun off TikTok's U.S. operations into a new American firm, primarily owned and operated by U.S. investors. However, this arrangement was put on hold after China signaled its disapproval, following Trump's imposition of substantial tariffs on Chinese goods.

Trump explicitly stated, "We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way. I think I'll need probably China's approval. I think President Xi will probably do it."

A U.S. law passed in 2024 had set a deadline of January 19 for TikTok to cease operations unless ByteDance completed the divestment of its U.S. assets or showed significant progress towards a sale. Trump, who believes the app helped him gain support from young voters in the previous November's presidential election, has now extended this deadline three times.