Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Monday in Madrid that the U.S. and China reached a “framework” agreement over the social media giant, which has been facing a Sept. 17 deadline to either sell its U.S. business or be banned.
“It’s between two private parties, but the commercial terms have been agreed upon,” Bessent said. He added that Trump’s pressure on Beijing was “critical” to clinching the deal.
Trump took to Truth Social, writing: “The big Trade Meeting in Europe between The United States of America, and China, has gone VERY WELL! It will be concluding shortly. A deal was also reached on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save. They will be very happy! I will be speaking to President Xi on Friday.”
The cryptic post was a clear nod to TikTok, which boasts 170 million American users.
Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to meet Friday to finalize the terms, with U.S. officials insisting the deal will ensure national security safeguards while giving TikTok a U.S.-backed ownership structure.
For months, Trump has teased that “very wealthy people” were ready to buy the app, even floating names like Oracle’s Larry Ellison and Tesla’s Elon Musk. Meanwhile, Congress passed a law last year banning TikTok unless its China-based parent, ByteDance, sells off U.S. assets.
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