 "US President Donald Trump has vowed to save TikTok from a ban. (Image Credit: Reuters)")
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday said that a “framework agreement” has been reached regarding TikTok.
“We have a framework for a TikTok deal,” Bessent said, according to The New York Times.
Without going into details of the agreement, Bessent said that “getting to this framework was made possible by President Trump”.
Around the same time, in an apparent reference to TikTok, President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that “a deal was also reached on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our country very much wanted to save”. He further said that he will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday.
Referring to the Trump-Xi call, Bessent said that “they will have to confirm the deal” — suggesting that a formal announcement could be made after the call.
Trump has until Wednesday to secure a deal to separate the US operations of TikTok from its Chinese owner ByteDance. In the absence of any deal, TikTok will face a ban in the United States. As TikTok had helped Trump win in the 2024 presidential election, Trump had committed to save the app from a ban irrespective of bipartisan security concerns and independent research showing how the platform has served as the propaganda outlet of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
Last year, the US Congress passed a bipartisan bill that said TikTok would be banned in the United States unless its US operations would be sold to a non-Chinese company. The initial deadline for TikTok’s sale was January 19 but Trump granted it a 75-day extension. The latest extension will expire on Wednesday.
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Bessent made these remarks from Spain where he and Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer held trade negotiations with a Chinese delegation led by He Lifeng, the vice premier for economic policy for the second day straight. It was the fourth round of US-China trade talks in Trump’s second term.
At its peak, Trump had slapped 145 per cent tariffs on China and Xi had slapped 125 per cent tariffs on China. Currently, the two sides are holding talks to reach a middle ground amid a trade truce. However, there are signs that Trump has buckled under pressure from China’s near-monopoly over rare earths’ supplies.
In their call on Friday, Trump and Xi could “complete” the deal, said Bessent.