An executive order signed by Trump gave the social media’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, 75 days to sell its interests. The company has about a month remaining to do so with the deadline on April 5.
“We have a lot of interest in TikTok. China is going to play a role, so hopefully China will approve of the deal,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “But they’re going to play a role.”
“But we have a lot of interest in TikTok,” the president reiterated.
Trump fought to keep the company online after it briefly went dark the day before Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, stirring considerable controversy among the app’s users and forcing many toward another Chinese app, RedNote.
Trump said an extension isn’t needed at this time because the deadline is still a month away but “if I need an extension, I will probably get it extended.”
A Punchbowl report earlier this month indicated that Trump has tasked Vice President JD Vance and national security adviser Mike Waltz with securing a deal for TikTok to be sold.
The company has been unwilling to sell its interests in TikTok in the past. Several American buyers have shown interest in the social media app with little real progress. Elon Musk, who already owns X, has been floated by China as a possible American buyer. Such a purchase could endear the U.S. government to China as Musk has considerable influence in the executive branch and beyond.
But Beijing previously let their intentions known that the law requiring a sale of TikTok is “sheer robbers’ logic.”
“It is sheer robbers’ logic to try every means to snatch from others all the good things that they have,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said last year.
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Users of the app praised Trump when he used his executive power to push the app back online temporarily.
A deal to ensure TikTok is available to U.S. users long-term is likely to be popular and something in which Trump has remained interested.
