Why Trump, who once wanted TikTok banned, is now batting for it

US President Donald Trump is set to talk to Chinese President Xi Jinping today (September 19). The two men are set to discuss, among other things, the sale of the popular app TikTok.

Officials this week said the “framework” of a deal between the United States and the Chinese-owned app had been reached. The two men will also discuss the trade deal and a possible White House visit by Xi.

“We have a deal on TikTok … We have a group of very big companies that want to buy it,” Trump said earlier this week. This will be the first call between the leaders in three months. Trump and Xi last spoke in June for 90 minutes in a discussion centred around a possible trade deal.

But why does TikTok matter to Trump?

Let’s take a closer look.

A brief look at TikTok

First, let’s take a brief look at TikTok. The app is owned by parent company ByteDance. It is hugely popular around the world, particularly in America, where it has around 170 million users – many of them young.

More from Explainers

TikTok survives in US: Trump signs order for $14bn carve-up deal China urges US to provide "open and fair" treatment on TikTok deal

The app is owned by parent company ByteDance, which has been accused of having links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The US Congress last year, under the previous Joe Biden administration, passed a law requiring ByteDance to sell the app or face a ban.

They did this over purported ‘national security concerns’ about the data from millions of Americans that the app was collecting – which they feared was being shared with the CCP as required by Chinese law. TikTok, among other things, knows a user’s location, their IP address, the device they are accessing it from, their gender, sexual orientation and religious views.

Congress also claimed that American citizens could be vulnerable to Chinese influence if they are manipulated by TikTok’s algorithm, which recommends topics to users based on their behaviour and search history.

Editor’s Picks

1

Why Khaby Lame, the world's most-followed TikToker, was forced to leave US 2

Who was Papa Jake Larson, the 102-year-old WWII hero and TikTok star who inspired millions?

Congress had set the date for the app to be sold as January 19, 2025, under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The app briefly went offline in the US, to the dismay of millions of its users.

However, Trump, who took office the next day, then extended the deadline. He has repeatedly done so, including earlier this week when he yet again moved the date of sale to December 16. This came after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the “framework of the deal” had been reached between the US and China.

The agreement was reportedly negotiated by Bessent and Chinese vice premier He Lifeng in Madrid. Under the deal, ByteDance will sell its US TikTok assets to new owners. Wang Jingtao, the deputy head of China’s cybersecurity regulator, said the deal included “licensing the algorithm and other intellectual property rights”. Wang added that ByteDance “entrusts the operation of TikTok’s US user data and content security.”

There are reports that the US would get its own version of the app – essentially, it would be spun off from the main TikTok app. Those interested in buying the app reportedly include tech giant Oracle, and investment firms Andreessen Horowitz and Silver Lake.

Why Trump wants to keep it

Trump has gone back and forth on whether to sell the app or not. After all, it was Trump in 2020 who signed an executive order calling TikTok a ‘national emergency’ and ordering it banned. However, this was blocked by US courts.

But as it happens often with Trump, the last person to speak to him often gets the last word – leading him to change his mind. In this case, it was Trump’s youngest son, Barron, who introduced him to the app.

Trump has claimed that the app delivered to him millions of votes, particularly the youth, during the 2024 election with Kamala Harris. Trump, who has 15 million followers on TikTok, has in fact, claimed that it was part of the reason he won the youth vote by 36 points.

This in fact is not true, as Trump won in zero categories of voters under the age of 50. Kamala won under-30 voters 54-43 per cent, voters in their 30s by 51-45 per cent, and the two candidates tied among voters in their 40s.

However, facts haven’t changed the US president’s feelings. “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said. “TikTok had an impact.”

Trump could also be looking for yet another social media app that is favourable for him. Many accuse Elon Musk, who owns X, of changing the algorithm to benefit Trump, his preferred 2024 candidate, during the election.

Experts say the issue also has zero downside for Trump politically.

“This is one of those things where the domestic politics have become so upside down and crazy that it turns out there’s only upside for Trump now,” Bill Bishop, a China expert who has been closely following the back-and-forth, said in January when the ban on TikTok came into effect. If the ban ends up being enforced, he said, Trump will say it was on outgoing President Joe Biden’s watch. “And if it does come back, then Trump is a saviour. And he will be rewarded both by users,” as well as the company, which he said is now “beholden to Trump” and will have an incentive to make sure content on the platform is favourable to him.

Hurdles remain

However, hurdles remain.

Lawyers representing TikTok and ByteDance have warned of the difficulty of selling a Chinese company to the United States. This is due to the proprietary nature of the app.

Some say the US could get a ‘watered down’ version of TikTok. Kokil Jaidka, a computing expert from the National University of Singapore, told the BBC, “It simply doesn’t make business sense for ByteDance to hand over its most valuable asset when a lighter version can keep the app running without giving away its edge.”

“A lighter, slower, more domestic version – while ByteDance keeps the crown jewels in Beijing,” Jaidka said.

However, others say the game has changed.

Dimitar Gueorguiev, an associate professor of political science and director of Chinese studies at Syracuse University, told CNBC the sale may end up being a “Pyrrhic victory.”

Gueorguiev said the much-vaunted algorithm – known as the ‘secret sauce’ – has “lost much of its mystique” as other social media platforms catch up. He warned that any US buyer is merely “purchasing market share and user base, not transformative technology.”

“For Beijing, that makes TikTok an expendable concession,” Gueorguiev added. “Chinese officials have let the issue fester for years, holding it in reserve as a problem they could one day solve to defuse pressure from Washington.” He said the “real contest” is in semiconductors and artificial intelligence (AI). “That is the front line of technological competition,” he added.

China on Thursday had confirmed the development but yet again said it opposed “politicisation, instrumentalisation and weaponisation of technology and economic and trade issues.”

China will never “seek any agreement at the expense of principled positions, corporate interests and international fairness and justice,” Commerce Ministry spokesperson He Yadong said.

The call

Other key issues set to be discussed on the call include competition between both sides on semiconductors and other advanced technologies. The US wants Beijing to buy more of its harvested soybeans and Boeing planes.

The US is also demanding that China crack down on the export of fentanyl-related chemicals, a major cause of overdose deaths. Beijing has accused Washington of distorting the issue. Recent data points to slowing economies in both China and the United States.

Since retaking office in January, Trump sharply hiked tariffs across the board and singled out China’s export-oriented economy, especially with punitive rates. That prompted China to respond in kind. Tariff rates on both sides of the Pacific rose to triple-digit percentages in April.

With inputs from agencies