Former US President Donald Trump suggested Monday that a breakthrough had been reached in the long-running standoff over TikTok’s future in the United States, signaling that the popular app may avoid a looming nationwide ban.
Writing on his social media platform, Trump said a meeting between US and Chinese officials “went well” and produced a deal concerning “a certain company that young people in our country very much wanted to save” — an unmistakable reference to TikTok.
The app, owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance, faces a September 17 deadline to divest its US operations or risk being shut down under legislation passed during Joe Biden’s presidency on national security grounds. Washington has long raised concerns that Chinese laws could compel ByteDance to hand over American user data to Beijing.
Trump, who has repeatedly extended the deadline, told reporters Sunday that he was undecided on whether a final agreement was imminent, though he confirmed he would hold a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. Beijing has yet to confirm his remarks.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking after trade talks in Madrid, said the framework for a TikTok deal had been agreed, with terms paving the way for a shift to US ownership. “We are not going to talk about the commercial terms of the deal,” Bessent said, adding only that “the commercial terms have been agreed upon.” He met last week with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Spain.
TikTok, launched internationally in 2016 and turbocharged by its 2018 merger with Musical.ly, has become the first Chinese social media platform to dominate Western markets. Its viral dances, music clips, and algorithm-driven feeds made it a global cultural force during the COVID-19 pandemic, launching music careers like that of Lil Nas X and pushing rivals Instagram and YouTube to introduce their own short-video formats.
Yet its success has been dogged by suspicion in Washington. Lawmakers have flagged risks around user privacy, data security, and the opaque algorithm that shapes what hundreds of millions of users see on their feeds.
Meanwhile, the TikTok negotiations are part of broader US-China trade talks in Madrid, where delegations led by Bessent and Vice Premier He resumed discussions Monday. Tariffs are also at the center of the agenda, with both countries locked in a bitter tit-for-tat that has sent duties into triple digits and squeezed supply chains. A temporary truce that lowered Chinese export tariffs to 10% and US import tariffs to 30% is due to expire in November.
For now, TikTok’s fate — and a possible easing of wider trade tensions — hinges on whether Trump and Xi can finalize a deal later this week.