Donald Trump has said he will start talking to China on Monday or Tuesday about a possible TikTok deal.
The United States president said the US “pretty much” had a deal on the sale of the TikTok short-video app.
“I think we’re gonna start Monday or Tuesday … talking to China – perhaps President Xi or one of his representatives – but we would, we pretty much have a deal,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Friday.
Trump also said he might visit Xi Jinping in China or the Chinese leader may visit the US.
The two leaders last month invited each other to visit their respective countries.
Trump last month also extended a deadline to 17 September for China-based ByteDance to divest the US assets of TikTok, a social media app with 170 million users in the US.
A deal had been in the works this spring to spin off TikTok’s US operations into a new US-based firm, majority-owned and operated by US investors, but it was put on hold after China indicated it would not approve it following Trump’s announcements of steep tariffs on Chinese goods.
Trump said on Friday the US would probably have to get a deal approved by China.
Asked how confident he was that Beijing would agree to a deal, he said: “I’m not confident, but I think so. President Xi and I have a great relationship, and I think it’s good for them. I think the deal is good for China and it’s good for us.”
Trump’s June extension was his third executive order to delay the ban or sale of TikTok and gave ByteDance another 90 days to find a buyer or be banned in the US.
Trump’s first executive order giving TikTok a reprieve came on his first day in office – just three days after the supreme court ruled to uphold the ban. Trump issued the second executive order in April. The deadline for the sale or ban was then set for 19 June. Now, TikTok has until September.
In a statement issued the same day, TikTok thanked Trump and JD Vance. “We are grateful for President Trump’s leadership”, the statement said, and TikTok would “continue to work with Vice President Vance’s Office” to come to an agreement.
Democratic senator Mark Warner, vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, accused Trump of sidestepping the law with an executive order.
With reporting by Dara Kerr