Trump Signs Order Allowing TikTok to Keep Operating in U.S.

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – In a move that further intertwines the worlds of big tech, high-stakes international diplomacy, and partisan politics, U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to help advance a deal that would spin off the American operations of the wildly popular video app TikTok to a consortium of mostly U.S.-based investors, including some of his wealthiest and most prominent political allies.

According to a detailed report from The Washington Post, the order pushes the influential app, which boasts 170 million users in the United States, into friendly corporate hands while allowing it to sidestep a nationwide ban mandated by a bipartisan law passed last year. A White House fact sheet released Thursday celebrated the move, stating that "President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order saving TikTok from a ban while protecting America’s national security."

The deal, which still requires final approval from Beijing, provides a path for TikTok to continue operating in the U.S. following the passage of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

The law, as reported by The Washington Post, was rooted in warnings from federal officials that the Chinese government could potentially use the app to harvest Americans' data or covertly influence the content they consume, though no public evidence was ever presented to substantiate these fears.

Trump's executive order on Thursday postpones the law's enforcement for 120 days to allow negotiators to finalize the complex transaction. This marks the fifth such postponement by Trump, a tactic that has drawn criticism from those who argue a president lacks the authority to unilaterally override a law that has been upheld by the Supreme Court.

Speaking from the Oval Office, President Trump framed the deal as a positive outcome for the United States, stating that the new company would be run by "very sophisticated … very smart" Americans. He also told reporters he had received a green light from his Chinese counterpart.

"I spoke with President Xi," Trump said, according to a Reuters report. "We had a good talk, I told him what we were doing and he said go ahead with it." When questioned by The Washington Post about the potential for the new ownership to skew the app's content to be more favorable to his administration, Trump said, “If I could, I’d make it 100 percent MAGA-related. But it’s not going to work out that way, unfortunately … every group, every philosophy, every policy will be treated very fairly.”

The proposed ownership structure of the new TikTok U.S., as detailed by The Washington Post and Reuters, includes a roster of corporate interests with well-established ties to Trump and the Republican Party.

Two people familiar with the internal negotiations told The Washington Post that prominent figures such as Jeff Yass, a co-founder of Susquehanna International Group, and Larry Ellison, a co-founder of Oracle, are involved. CNBC and The Washington Post reported that a consortium comprising Oracle, the private equity firm Silver Lake, and the Emirati state-owned investment firm MGX will split a 45 percent stake.

The White House fact sheet confirmed that the new joint venture will be "majority-owned by U.S. investors" and that ByteDance will hold "less than 20% of the stock as required by law." It also stated that ByteDance will choose only one of seven board members and be excluded from the company's security committee. The new U.S. company will be valued at around $14 billion, Vice President JD Vance announced, a figure that, as Reuters noted, is far below some analyst estimates that had placed its worth between $30 billion and $40 billion.

Despite the president's endorsement, the deal faces potential hurdles and lingering questions, particularly concerning the app's powerful recommendation algorithm. The White House fact sheet asserted that the deal puts "the operation of the algorithm, code, and content moderation decisions under the control of the new joint venture" and requires all recommendation models to be "retrained and monitored by America’s trusted security partners."

However, Chinese media outlets, as reported by Reuters, have painted a different picture, suggesting ByteDance will continue to play a major operational role and will set up a new U.S. company to handle e-commerce and brand operations. This has fueled concerns among some Republican lawmakers and legal experts. "The problem is that the president has certified the deal, but he has not provided a lot of information on the algorithm," Alan Rozenshtein, a law professor, told Reuters.

The process has been highly unconventional, with the White House playing a direct role in brokering the deal and helping to select the new owners. “This process has not been about the law, it’s been about interests and dealmaking and money and power,” Graham Webster, a research scholar at Stanford University, told The Washington Post.

This resolution marks a significant reversal for Trump, who, after the forced-sale bill was signed into law by then-President Joe Biden, had railed against it as a government overreach. He had complained that banning TikTok would primarily benefit its rival, Meta, and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.

The law originally set a deadline of January 19 for ByteDance to sell, but on his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order effectively nullifying its enforcement. He has since credited the app, on which he has 15 million followers, with helping him win reelection, according to Reuters.

The shift in ownership to figures politically aligned with the president has sparked concern among Democrats and civil liberties experts about the app's potential use as a political tool, especially given its growing influence as a news source.

A new Pew Research Center report, cited by The Washington Post, found that one-fifth of American adults now get their news from TikTok. “The GOP are buying up platforms to control the news and information you receive,” California Governor Gavin Newsom posted on X.

Anupam Chander, a Georgetown University law professor, told The Post that the deal's structure undermines the law's original justification. "The law’s sponsors told us that their main motivation was propaganda, and by shifting the app to more friendly, politically aligned owners, my worry is that we’ve introduced a different kind of propaganda concern," he said.

Summary: President Trump signed an order advancing a deal to spin off TikTok's U.S. operations to investors including his corporate allies, postponing a nationwide ban, according to reports from The Washington Post and Reuters. The move, valued at $14B, has sparked concerns over political influence.