President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order clearing the way for the completion of a deal to sell TikTok’s United States assets to a group of mostly American investors. While the signing marked a critical step in the process, the deal itself is not yet complete and will require multiple layers of approval before it is finalized.
The move represents the culmination of months of negotiations over the popular short video platform, which has faced intense scrutiny from Washington over national security concerns tied to its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle had long argued that TikTok posed risks of data exploitation and potential foreign influence on American citizens.
The executive order formally designates the proposed divestiture as a qualified sale under U.S. law. That legislation, which took effect in January after passing with bipartisan support, requires ByteDance to divest at least 80 percent of TikTok’s U.S. operations into the hands of non-Chinese investors or face an outright ban of the platform. Trump had postponed enforcement of the law several times, citing ongoing negotiations.
In the text of the order, Trump said the deal would allow Americans to continue using TikTok while ensuring that national security concerns are addressed. He added that the agreement will also cover ByteDance’s other digital platforms, including Lemon8 and the popular editing tool CapCut, both of which had also come under U.S. review.
Despite Thursday’s signing, the process is far from finished. The deal still requires approval from U.S. regulators, including the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, as well as sign-offs from Chinese authorities. Officials in both countries have publicly signaled support for the framework, but experts note that the final stage of regulatory clearance could still take months.
A senior White House official confirmed that Trump intends to extend the pause on enforcement of the ban by another 120 days to allow time for paperwork and regulatory approvals. The president had already extended the deadline once, pushing it to December 16. If the deal advances as planned, TikTok’s U.S. assets are unlikely to be formally transferred until early next year.
Negotiators say ByteDance is expected to sign the framework agreement with new investors in the coming days. During the signing event at the White House, Trump revealed that Chinese President Xi Jinping had personally given his blessing for the deal following a phone call last week. Trump described the conversation as positive and expressed confidence that the arrangement will move forward.
Under the terms currently outlined, the U.S. consortium would include Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell, and Lachlan Murdoch’s Fox Corporation. The joint venture would be run by a board with a majority of American directors, while ByteDance would retain no more than a 20 percent stake.
Oracle is set to play a particularly critical role, overseeing TikTok’s core algorithm as well as its data storage and privacy functions. The company’s involvement was seen as key to assuaging concerns in Washington about whether the app could be used by Beijing to collect sensitive information or push propaganda to American users.
The valuation of TikTok’s U.S. business in the deal was placed at around $14 billion, according to Vice President JD Vance, who spoke during the signing ceremony. Previous estimates for TikTok’s U.S. assets had ranged widely, from $20 billion to more than $100 billion, depending on whether ByteDance’s closely guarded algorithm was included in the transaction.
Vance, who had led the administration’s negotiations on the deal, said the agreement strikes a balance between preserving access to the app and safeguarding national interests. “This deal really does mean that Americans can use TikTok, but actually use it with more confidence than they had in the past,” Vance said. “Their data is going to be secure and it’s not going to be used as a propaganda weapon against our fellow citizens.”
While TikTok enjoys immense popularity among younger Americans, with over 150 million monthly users in the United States, the app has become a flashpoint in the broader geopolitical and economic tensions between Washington and Beijing. The divestiture deal represents one of the most high-profile attempts by the U.S. government to force a Chinese-owned tech company to hand over control of its operations.
The president framed the order as both a national security necessity and a safeguard for free expression. “We want Americans to keep enjoying TikTok. But it has to be done in a way that protects our country,” Trump said at the signing. He praised the bipartisan law passed earlier this year as an important tool for dealing with foreign technology companies deemed a risk to national security.
Some lawmakers, however, have expressed skepticism about the deal, arguing that ByteDance’s continued minority stake may leave room for undue influence. Others warn that the approval process in Beijing could complicate or even stall the transfer, depending on political winds. Analysts say that while Thursday’s executive order is significant, the outcome is far from guaranteed.
For now, TikTok remains fully operational in the United States, and its users are unlikely to see any immediate changes to the app. But the future of the platform rests on whether this intricate agreement between Washington, Beijing, and a patchwork of American investors can survive the coming months of regulatory scrutiny.
