President Donald Trump said a deal to divest TikTok from its parent company to keep it accessible in the U.S. would be struck by the Saturday deadline.
“We have a lot of potential buyers,” Trump said on Air Force One late on Sunday, according to Reuters. “There’s tremendous interest in TikTok….I’d like to see TikTok remain alive.”
April 5 is the new deadline for the app to be sold off or else face a ban, after Trump extended the January deadline set by a 2024 law that passed with bipartisan Congressional support. Lawmakers have sought to find a non-Chinese buyer for the app over national security concerns.
Private equity group Blackstone is considering a stake in TikTok, Reuters and the New York Times reported Friday. Blackstone would join an existing group of non-Chinese shareholders that is considered to be front-runners in the bid for the app, according to Reuters.
TikTok did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment on Trump’s promise.
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Recap: Why is TikTok facing a ban again?
In late January, TikTok went dark for a little more than 12 hours in the U.S. after the app was effectively banned under federal legislation.
President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act in 2024. It gave parent company ByteDance until Jan. 19, 2025 to divest TikTok or face the ban. Some political officials have seen TikTok as a national security threat for years, expressing concern that ByteDance may be sharing U.S. user data with the Chinese government. ByteDance has repeatedly denied these claims, which thus far remain unsubstantiated.
Around that January deadline, U.S. internet hosting services made TikTok unavailable to access and app stores removed the app for download.
Though previously in favor of a ban on TikTok, especially during his first administration, Trump began saying he could “save” the app after winning the 2024 presidential election.
During the temporary January shutdown, Trump promised internet hosting services and app stores that they could restore TikTok and not face legal penalties. Most waited until the following month to restore access, however, fearing repercussions. Under the federal legislation, companies could be fined $5,000 per user they help access TikTok. For companies like Google and Apple, this could mean a $5,000 fine for each user who downloads or updates TikTok.
Can Trump extend the TikTok deadline again?
Under the federal legislation that put the ban in place, the president can implement a 90-day extension on the deadline to sell. However, Trump didn’t take this route in January; instead, he signed an executive order delaying the ban by 75 days.
If Trump wishes to sign another executive order ahead of the April 5 deadline, he can.
Senators urge Trump to work with Congress to save TikTok
On March 24, three Democratic senators sent a letter to Trump, asking the president to work with Congress on “any potential resolutions to the TikTok ban.”
“To the extent that you continue trying to delay the divestment deadline through executive orders, any further extensions of the TikTok deadline will require Oracle, Apple, Google and other companies to continue risking ruinous legal liability,” it states.
The letter, signed by Massachusetts Sen. Edward J. Markey, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen and New Jersey Sen. Cory A. Booker, asks Trump to urge Republican senators to approve the Extend the TikTok Deadline Act. Introduced in January just days before the initial ban, the act, if passed, would extend the TikTok sale deadline to Oct. 16, 2025.
Who has expressed interest in purchasing TikTok?
Earlier in March, Trump told journalists that his administration was working with “four different groups” interested in purchasing TikTok but didn’t elaborate further. Here’s who has expressed public interest in the app recently:
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Project Liberty – Project Liberty, an organization led by former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt with the intention of “constructing a new internet infrastructure,” submitted a bid to ByteDance earlier this year. In addition to McCourt, “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian have committed to the bid.
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MrBeast – A consortium of investors led by Employer.com founder and CEO Jesse Tinsley also submitted a bid to ByteDance earlier this year. James “Jimmy” Donaldson, the internet superstar more commonly known as MrBeast, is a part of the consortium, according to a news release from law firm Paul Hastings.
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Perplexity AI – U.S.-based search engine Perplexity AI proposed a merger in January, according to Reuters. Rather than a sale, the merger would result in a new entity − a culmination of Perplexity AI and TikTok.
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Bobby Kotick, Doug McMillon, Microsoft and Rumble – Others who have expressed interest in purchasing the platform but have not made bids include Bobby Kotick, former CEO of video game company Activision; Doug McMillon, Walmart CEO; Microsoft, which proposed purchasing the platform with Walmart in 2020; and conservative video streaming platform Rumble.
(This story has been updated with a new video.)
Contributing: Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY; Reuters
Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Story idea? Email her at gcross@usatoday.com.
Kinsey Crowley is a trending news reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at kcrowley@gannett.com. Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @kinseycrowley.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump teases TikTok sale deal ahead of Saturday deadline
