Trump says he has group of wealthy people to buy TikTok

U.S. President Donald Trump said in a Fox News interview broadcast on Sunday that he had found a buyer, which he described as a group of "very wealthy people", for the TikTok short-video app. He said he will reveal identities of the buyer in about two weeks.

Trump said the deal he is developing would probably need China's approval to move forward and he predicted China would likely approve it.

Earlier this month, despite a law that mandated a sale or shutdown, the U.S. president extended the deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the U.S. assets of TikTok, to September 17.

A deal had been in the works this spring that would have spun off TikTok's U.S. operations into a new U.S.-based firm, majority-owned and operated by U.S. investors, but it was put on hold after China indicated it would not approve it following Trump's announcements of steep tariffs on Chinese goods.

"We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way," Trump said. "I think I'll need probably China's approval."

He added that China would "probably do it."

A 2024 U.S. law required TikTok to stop operating by January 19 unless ByteDance had completed divesting the app's U.S. assets or demonstrated significant progress toward a sale.

Trump, who credits the app with boosting his support among young voters in last November's presidential election, has extended the deadline three times.