By, David Goldman
President Donald Trump on Monday suggested that a deal has been reached with China to keep TikTok operational in the United States, the conclusion of a years long effort that began during Trump’s first term.
“The big Trade Meeting in Europe between The United States of America, and China, has gone VERY WELL! It will be concluding shortly,” Trump said.
Monday in a post on Truth Social. “A deal was also reached on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save. They will be very happy! I will be speaking to President Xi on Friday.”
Chinese and US diplomats have been meeting this week in Madrid to discuss trade and other matters. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, leading the latest round of trade talks with China on behalf of the United States, had said that TikTok was one of the subjects likely to be discussed.
Trump multiple times has extended a self-imposed deadline to reach a deal with China to sell at least part of its US TikTok business to an American-backed owner. A bipartisan bill passed by Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden banned TikTok in the United States unless its China-based owner divested its stake in the US assets of the social media company.
TikTok briefly went dark in the United States on January 18, the day before the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act went into effect. But on January 19, one day before Trump took office for his second term, he said he would sign an executive action upon the beginning of his term that would ensure US companies would not be punished for hosting TikTok on their app stores or servers.
The executive order, signed on January 20, delayed for 75 days the enforcement of the law. Trump extended the deadline again in June. The deadline had most recently been extended to September 17, but Trump was widely expected to move the deadline again if a deal didn’t come together in time.
The law gives the president broad discretion on how to enforce the ban. But critics have said Trump’s extensions thwarted the will of Congress.
