President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that essentially approves the sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to an American investor group in order to keep the social media app operational in the country. Vice President JD Vance said that the deal would value TikTok US at “around $14 billion.”
TikTok was required to divest its American business or be banned in the U.S. via a national security law originally signed by former president Joe Biden. Trump’s executive order essentially bars the attorney general or Department of Justice from enforcing that law for 120 days while the divestiture plan presented to the president is executed.
TikTok’s owner ByteDance has not yet publicly acknowledged the deal or executive order, but did, on September 19, issue a statement that “it will work in accordance with applicable laws to ensure TikTok remains available to American users through TikTok U.S.”
Trump said China’s president Xi Jinping spoke to him and gave him approval.
“I spoke with President Xi; we had a good talk,” Trump said during a briefing with reporters. “I told him what we were doing, and he said, ‘Go ahead with it.”
