The clock is Tik-ing for TikTok’s 170 million users. On Sunday, President Trump once again claimed that the TikTok deal would be done in time for the April 5 deadline.
Speaking to Reuters reporters, he said: “We have a lot of potential buyers. There’s tremendous interest in TikTok.” He then added that he’d like to see TikTok remain alive.”
This echoes earlier sentiments expressed by Vice President JD Vance, whom Trump put in charge of hammering out a deal with TikTok. Last month, he said that there would “almost certainly” be a “high-level” agreement by the deadline. Then, he appeared to backtrack somewhat, noting that only the “outlines” of the deal might be ready on time, as there was still a lot of paperwork to do.
But what exactly will this deal look like? Previous reports suggest that Oracle — a cloud-based platform that already holds US TikTokers’ data as part of a deal called ‘Project Texas — is key to the deal, while a Friday report from Reuters suggests that private equity firm Blackstone is considering making a minority investment in TikTok’s operations.
If a deal still is not reached by April 5, Trump said he’s willing to extend the deadline. That means, at least for now, creators shouldn’t worry too much about any potential loss of income.
