DONALD Trump said he has a group of “very wealthy people” lined up to buy TikTok.
The President has consistently postponed the implementation of a ban prohibiting the app to provide additional time for talks with the Chinese proprietors, who have persistently declined to sell.
Trump has fought to force TikTok’s owners to sell to an American party since his first term.
A law signed the previous year renders it unlawful to function under the current Chinese ownership, yet the prohibition has been postponed three times, and the company has continually refused to divest.
However, on Sunday, Trump told Fox News a “group of very wealthy people” wanted to purchase the app from ByteDance.
He said: “I think I will need China[’s] approval, and I think President Xi will probably do it.”
Without revealing any details, he added: “I’ll tell you in about two weeks.”
The closest to Trump has come to barring American users from TikTok was at the time of his inauguration in January this year.
A ban was enforced on January 19, leading TikTok to suspend its operations an hour before the ban took effect, informing users that “you can’t use TikTok for now” because of a “law banning TikTok”.
But around 12 hours later it came back online after conversations between the US and China behind the scenes – and was available for download again three weeks later.
Since then, Trump has delayed the ban three times – twice for 75 days and most recently by 90 days on June 17.
The eventual ban or sale is required by a “foreign adversary” bill signed in March 2024.
ByteDance challenged the Act, but it was upheld by the Supreme Court in January.
It’s not clear how much TikTok would sell for, with valuations ranging from $30billion to $300billion.
Rumoured new American owners have included major tech companies like Microsoft and Oracle.
The wildly popular YouTuber Mr Beast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, said in January he would submit an official offer for TikTok through and investment group led by Jesse Tinsley.
Steve Mnuchin, Trump’s treasury secretary during his first term in office, also floated the idea of purchasing the app with a group of billionaire investors when the ban was first passed.
Amazon reportedly made a last-minute bid to purchase TikTok three days before the second recent extension in April.
The bill banning continued Chinese ownership of TikTok cites concerns about national security risks.
ByteDance was initially given nine months to sell-up – and that expired in January.
However, the company has repeatedly insisted it will not give-up the app.
It said in April: “ByteDance doesn’t have any plans to sell TikTok.”
Reports circulated that it was considering a sale of the app without the key algorithm, but these were denied.
The owners insisted: “Foreign media reports of ByteDance selling TikTok are not true.”
