Congress passed a bipartisan bill in 2024 requiring the social media app’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, to divest from the app or face a ban.
A deal to bring TikTok’s U.S. operations under American ownership has been finalized and should be signed soon, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
She added that the U.S. would have control over the app’s algorithm and data security.
Leavitt made the remarks in a Sept. 20 interview on Fox News, a day after President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and declared that Beijing had approved the sale of TikTok to American investors.
🚨 @PressSec @karolineleavitt with news on exactly what the TikTok deal will look like.
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) September 20, 2025
Saturday In America w/ Kayleigh McEnany @FoxNews ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/dgweGBcEOY
The Chinese regime’s public readout offered a more cautious tone, saying only that companies were free to conduct “commercial negotiations based on market rules.”
TikTok’s fate has become a vexing issue.
Congress passed a bipartisan bill in 2024 requiring the social media app’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, to divest or face a ban. The bill was signed into law by President Joe Biden before he left office.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly delayed the law’s enforcement while seeking a settlement that would keep the app—used by more than 170 million Americans—online under U.S. control to address national security concerns over Beijing’s potential access to user data.
In the interview, Leavitt said the administration is “100 percent confident that a deal is done” and expects it to be signed in the coming days.
“Great credit to [Treasury] Secretary [Scott] Bessent and [Trade] Ambassador [Jamieson] Greer and our Vice President, JD Vance, who really led the charge on this, and have been negotiating with the Chinese for months,” she said.
“They were able to accomplish a deal that puts America first and keeps TikTok open for all of the young Americans and all of the small businesses who have benefited greatly from selling their products and really creating a name for themselves on this highly popular app.”
Leavitt said TikTok’s U.S. business would be majority-owned by Americans, overseen by a seven-member board with six American directors, while data and privacy protections would be managed by Oracle.
“The algorithm will also be controlled by America,” she added.
By Tom Ozimek
