Trump to Approve TikTok Deal Giving US Ownership: What to Know

Sep 24, 2025 - 09:50 Updated: Sep 23, 2025 - 18:54

Trump to Approve TikTok Deal Giving US Ownership: What to Know

The Trump administration is touting a deal that will prevent the popular social media app TikTok from going dark, while wrestling it from Chinese control.

President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order this week that will give American investors and China-based ByteDance 120 more days to seek necessary regulatory approvals and close a deal.

Here’s what to know:

New Joint Venture Will Be Majority American Owned

Senior White House officials confirmed on Monday that U.S. cloud company Oracle will be among the investors, as well as private equity firm Silver Lake.

Speaking to Fox News on Sept. 22, the president said media moguls Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch will likely have a role, as well as Michael Dell, founder of Dell Technologies, and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. He said that all of the new would-be investors are “patriotic” Americans.

Trump has pushed for U.S. ownership of TikTok since his first administration, and several tech giants and wealthy investors have voiced interest in purchasing the app over the years.

The new joint venture will require ByteDance to own a stake that is below 20 percent, and its board member will not participate in its security committee.

A senior White House official said Saturday that the new joint venture will have seven total board seats, six to be held by Americans residing in the United States with cybersecurity and national security backgrounds, according to Reuters.

The U.S. government will not take a stake in the new joint venture, nor have a seat on the board.

Officials declined to comment on the valuation of the joint venture beyond saying it is expected to be “in the many billions.”

US to License, Retrain TikTok Algorithm

A copy of the infamous TikTok algorithm will be brought under the new joint venture’s control, overseen by Oracle, “outside of ByteDance’s control,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Sept. 22.

Oracle, which already hosts the data of U.S. TikTok users on its servers in the United States, will also serve as the security provider for the app.

This involves inspecting how the app interacts with users’ devices, how the content recommendation algorithm works, and the code and updates, including completely retraining the algorithm with U.S. data and observing it for signs of malicious influence, the White House official said Monday.

The need to license the algorithm became a point of concern last week when Chinese officials brought up licensing, prompting China hawks in Congress to sound the alarm about a potential deal that would see ByteDance or any Chinese entity maintain control of the code and its updates.

The algorithm dictates what users see on their “for you” page, which is how the majority of users interact with the app. There have been reports—including one by the UK data protection watchdog—that the app made inappropriate recommendations such as showing self-harm videos to teens within minutes of joining, or suppressing criticism of the Chinese communist regime.

The regime is also known to have backed cyber influence operations promoting political division—federal law enforcement have investigated cases where members of China’s spy agency were tasked with posting content about U.S. healthcare, abortion, immigration, January 6, and police-involved shooting to sow division.

Senior White House officials indicated Oracle will become responsible for how the algorithm behaves in this new joint venture.

It remains unclear how retraining the algorithm on U.S. data only will affect user experience. Oracle did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Epoch Times.

Leavitt said that TikTok US would not prevent users in the United States from seeing content posted outside the United States.

Why Does ByteDance Need to Sell TikTok?

The U.S. government spent two years, spanning both the first Trump administration and the Biden administration, negotiating with ByteDance to try to resolve national security concerns.

In addition to concerns about whether the Chinese regime had influence over the TikTok algorithm, there was an issue of data security. Chinese cybersecurity laws require entities operating in China to share data with the regime on demand, without disclosing any such requests.

The U.S. Intelligence Community was unsatisfied with ByteDance’s security proposals, noting that as long as China had access to TikTok, there would remain a security risk.

This prompted Congress to pass a law that would prohibit foreign adversary control of apps with more than 1 million monthly active users, singling out ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok. It would also have penalized companies for providing services to ByteDance-held TikTok, such as app stores hosting the app.

The law, swiftly signed by President Joe Biden, factored in enough time for ByteDance to challenge it in court and either divest of TikTok or have it cease operations by the end of Biden’s term.

Trump administration officials have criticized the Biden administration for its willingness to let TikTok go dark. Trump favors domestic control of the app used by around 170 million Americans. They estimate it will contribute $178 billion in economic development over the next four years.

ByteDance did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Epoch Times.

Why Did Trump Need Xi’s Approval?

Trump administration officials announced major developments in a TikTok U.S. venture last week as the app was set to go dark on Sept. 17 without a divestment deal or extension signed by Trump.

With the deadline looming, Chinese negotiators were motivated to hammer out a framework for a TikTok U.S. deal, which was formed with input from Trump, U.S. officials said after meetings in Madrid. They announced a Trump–Xi call scheduled for the end of the week, meant to secure Chinese approval for a sale of the app.

In 2020, China had updated export control laws to require state approval on sales of recommendation algorithms like TikTok’s amid U.S. government scrutiny of the app.

Trump deemed Chinese control of an app with so much U.S. data to be a national security risk, and issued an executive order to require its divestment.

ByteDance, the China-based owner of TikTok, had argued in legal proceedings that Chinese law would not allow it to sell the algorithm portion of the app, which would-be investors said was the most valuable, and critical, component. Chinese officials also said last week that any deal would need to be in line with Chinese law, referring to the export controls.

On Sept. 19, Trump had a two-hour phone call with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping that spanned several issues, and afterwards announced that the Chinese side had approved a deal.

Senior White House officials said on Sept. 22 that obtaining the algorithm had been a “tough point of negotiation,” but the Chinese side had agreed it would come under U.S. control—which is necessary to satisfy a U.S. national security law.

Lawmakers Cautious, But Not Disapproving

Several legislators have expressed concern about the deal, adding that they would reserve judgment until they see the terms.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said there was “great concern in Congress” over the deal, zeroing in on the handling of the algorithm.

“It’s a dangerous platform. It has been misused and abused; it has been used, frankly, against American youth in particular,” he said. “Leaders in Congress have expressed our desire and insistence that that be ceased.”

“We want TikTok to survive, we just don’t want it under the control of the Chinese Communist Party,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), the ranking member of the House Select Committee on the CCP. “There can’t be operational relationships between ByteDance and the new entity, such that the CCP would use a backdoor to gain access to data, violate people’s privacy, undermine the reason for the law.”

Committee chair Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) had expressed similar tentative approval, saying the fact that Xi personally had to come to the table to give his approval for a deal showed just how much TikTok is really under the CCP’s control.

“The algorithm is a huge issue and we don’t want to make allowances for China to influence, control what 170 million Americans see, and their outlook on the world,” he said. Moolenaar added that he was optimistic because Trump is “a very good negotiator” and expressed confidence that an American company would be able to design a good algorithm.

“The devil will be in the details,” said Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.). “We cannot allow China continued access to massive amounts of Americans’ personal data.”

He also warned against new U.S. investors turning the app into one that promotes partisan views.

Reuters contributed to this report.