President Donald Trump on Wednesday stated that a potential deal to spin off the U.S. assets of TikTok, which had been put on hold a few days prior, is still “on the table.”
Several U.S. Senators have criticized the proposed deal, but Trump defended it.
“We have a deal with some very good people, some very rich companies that would do a great job with it, but we’re going to have to wait and see what’s going to happen with China,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “It’s on the table, very much.”
Trump on Friday extended the deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the U.S. assets of the short video app used by 170 million Americans, or face a ban. The deal must be reached by June 19, the date when the ban would take effect.
Trump has twice granted a reprieve from enforcement of the ban, which was originally set to take effect in January.
The deal would spin off TikTok’s U.S. operations into a new company based in the U.S. and majority-owned and operated by U.S. investors. The plan entails spinning off a U.S. entity for TikTok and diluting Chinese ownership, sources have told Reuters.
Democratic Senators Mark Warner and Ed Markey said Trump had no legal authority to extend the deadline. Warner also said the reported likely deal under consideration would not meet legal requirements.
On Wednesday, Markey sought to pass legislation to extend the deadline until October but was blocked.
Senate Intelligence Committee chair Tom Cotton on Wednesday noted many American investors want to buy TikTok but warned they must cut all ties with China.
“These potential buyers may ask Congress to somehow indemnify them for violating the law or immunize them for TikTok’s past crimes against and injuries to the American people,” Cotton said. “To any American who wants to invest in some half-assed TikTok deal, Congress will never protect you from going into business with Communist China.”
TikTok did not immediately comment.
A major stumbling block to any deal for TikTok’s U.S. business is Chinese government approval.
One source close to ByteDance’s U.S. investors said work on the prospective deal continues ahead of the June 19 deadline, but the White House and Beijing will need to resolve the tariff dispute first.
The law required TikTok to stop operating by January 19 unless ByteDance had completed a divestiture of the app’s U.S. assets. Trump began his second term as president on January 20 and opted not to enforce it.
The Justice Department in January told Apple and Google that it would not enforce the law, which led them to restore the app for new downloads.
