President Trump appears on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” on June 29, 2025. Screenshot: Fox News.
President Trump said Sunday there is a buyer for TikTok, a week after he extended the app’s ban deadline for a third time.
The big picture: Trump would not say who the buyer is while appearing on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” noting only it is “a group of wealthy people.”
- When pressed by host Maria Bartiromo on who the buyer is, the president said he “will tell you in about two weeks.”
Zoom out: The popular social media app has been in limbo for months, repeatedly coming up against a deadline to ban it from U.S.-based app stores, only for Trump — who has his own TikTok account — to extend the ban for months at a time.
- The first extension came on the first day of his second term, followed by another in April when the White House thought a deal to place the app under American ownership was imminent.
- Instead, China balked at the deal and forced Trump to issue a second extension of the ban.
- The third extension — enacted on June 19 — was in yet another effort to push a potential deal over the finish line, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the media at a press briefing that day.
Between the lines: Trump offered no details Sunday as to what the deal entails or how quickly it would be completed.
- “I think I’ll probably need China [sic] approval,” he said. “I think President Xi [Jinping] will probably do it.”
Flashback: TikTok has been the subject of scrutiny from Congress — and even Trump, during his first presidential term — owing to concerns that its Chinese owner, ByteDance, has access to the personal data of the millions of Americans who use the app.
- Congress enacted a ban in April 2024 to force ByteDance to sell off its stake in the platform to an American government-approved buyer.
- ByteDance has tied up the case with numerous legal roadblocks, and received something of a reprieve when Trump launched his third presidential campaign and said he was opposed to banning the app.
