AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.The president told reporters Friday that China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, had approved a deal for TikTok. But he also suggested the agreement was a work in progress.Listen · 6:36 min President Trump spoke to members of the press aboard Air Force One on Thursday.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesSept. 19, 2025President Trump said on Friday that a deal to separate TikTok from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, had been approved by China’s top leader, Xi Jinping.“He approved the TikTok deal,” Mr. Trump told reporters Friday afternoon at the White House. But he also said there was more work to do on the deal, and he provided few details of what an agreement would look like. “We have to get it signed,” he said.“The TikTok deal is well on its way,” he added. “We look forward to getting that deal closed.”Those comments followed a post earlier in the day on Truth Social, the social media platform he owns, made after his call with Mr. Xi.Mr. Trump wrote, “The call was a very good one, we will be speaking again by phone, appreciate the TikTok approval.” But he also said, “we made progress on many very important issues” including the approval of the TikTok deal. He did not elaborate on what the approval entailed.A readout of the call from a Chinese state-run news agency was similarly indefinite, but Mr. Xi appeared to support a commercial solution to TikTok. It reported that Mr. Xi said the Chinese government “respects the wishes of the company in question and is glad to see business negotiations in line with market rules and a solution that conforms to Chinese laws and regulations and takes into account the interests of both sides.”TikTok’s future has been in limbo in the United States since January, when a federal law took effect requiring the company to find a non-Chinese owner or face a ban in the United States. The law was intended to address national security concerns that the app’s ownership could give Beijing a channel to spread propaganda or to collect sensitive data about Americans. Mr. Trump has extended the deadline four times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT