Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that the U.S. and China had struck a "framework for a TikTok deal," days before another deadline over the popular social media app was set to take effect that could have banned it in the U.S.
Bessent's statement came shortly after President Donald Trump said an agreement had been reached over a "company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save."
TikTok has remained in legal limbo over a U.S. law that threatened to ban it unless it was sold. It has continued to operate despite a 2024 law subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court that forced the app's Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the social media platform to a U.S.-based company or face steep penalties for continuing to operate in the U.S. The law had bipartisan support in Congress when it passed due to concerns about privacy and national security for the apps over 170 million U.S.-based users.
The app was briefly shuttered in the U.S. just days before Trump's inauguration -- but the president promised not to impose penalties on TikTok after he was sworn in to the White House while ByteDance worked to find a U.S.-based buyer.
Upon coming into office, he made that promise official with an executive order that he has since extended several times, most recently in June. The most recent extension is slated to expire on Wednesday.
Trump moved to ban TikTok in the U.S. during his first term, but has spoken about it favorably in his second term, crediting the platform with helping him win over key groups of young voters in the 2024 presidential election.
On Friday, during an interview on Fox News' "Fox and Friends," the president spoke about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed at an event on Wednesday.
"A Republican never wins youth, but I won youth. I will tell you, TikTok helped me, but [Kirk] helped me with TikTok, but he helped me with youth," Trump said.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick last week also spoke about the possible ban of the platform, highlighting the president’s positive feelings toward the platform while also weighing his concerns.
"The president likes TikTok. You know, he did well communicating with young people through TikTok. So he's partial to it," the commerce secretary told CNBC.
"But unless it's owned by Americans, and the algorithm is controlled by Americans -- because, you know, eventually that app in your phone, everything with China has a call daddy in it," Lutnick said. "So the president knows, if we're going to have TikTok here, that's got to go."
He added, "If the president can get that, he's going to keep TikTok. If you can't, it's going to go dark."