New yark :US President Donald Trump said on Friday the United States “pretty much” has a deal on the sale of the TikTok short-video app.Last month, Trump extended to September 17 a deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the U.S. assets of TikTok.Last Sunday, he said in his Fox News interview broadcast that he had found a buyer for the TikTok short-video app, which he described as a group of “very wealthy people” whose identities he will reveal in about two weeks.
Trump made the remarks in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo” program. He said the deal he is developing would probably need China’s approval to move forward and he predicted Chinese President Xi Jinping would likely approve it.
The U.S. president earlier this month had extended to September 17 a deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the U.S. assets of TikTok despite a law that mandated a sale or shutdown without significant progress.A deal had been in the works this spring that would have spun off TikTok’s U.S. operations into a new U.S.-based firm, majority-owned and operated by U.S. investors, but it was put on hold after China indicated it would not approve it following Trump’s announcements of steep tariffs on Chinese goods.
“We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way,” Trump said. “I think I’ll need probably China’s approval. I think President Xi will probably do it.”