White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said a TikTok deal is expected to be signed “in the coming days,” after President Donald Trump posted an update on Friday that did little to clarify where the deal currently stands following a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said both that the two had “made progress” on “approval of the TikTok Deal” and that he “appreciate[s] the TikTok approval.” Trump also told reporters in the Oval Office that “he approved the TikTok deal,” Reuters reported.
But Chinese state-run media reported the call a bit differently, according to The New York Times, saying that Xi conveyed that the government “respects the wishes of the company in question and is glad to see business negotiations in line with market rules and a solution that conforms to Chinese laws and regulations and takes into account the interests of both sides.”
TikTok owner ByteDance did little to clear things up when it issued the following statement. “We thank President Xi Jinping and President Donald J. Trump for their efforts to preserve TikTok in the United States. ByteDance will work in accordance with applicable laws to ensure TikTok remains available to American users through TikTok U.S.”
During an appearance on ‘ “Saturday in America” the following day, Leavitt added a bit more detail to the announcement, after first saying, “We are 100 percent confident that a deal is done. Now that deal just needs to be signed, and the president’s team is working with their Chinese counterparts to do just that.”
“This deal means that TikTok will be majority owned by Americans in the United States,” Leavitt said. “There will be seven seats on the board that controls the app in the United States and six of those seats will be Americans.” According to Leavitt, data and privacy will be led by Oracle, “and the algorithm will also be controlled by America as well.”
She went on to say that “all of those details have already been agreed upon. Now we just need this deal to be signed, and that will be happening, I anticipate, in the coming days.”
This week, there have been multiple reports that the two sides were reaching the final stages of negotiations. The proposed terms reportedly include a brand new app for TikTok’s US users that will continue to use ByteDance’s technology for its algorithm, US investor control and a multibillion-dollar payday for the Trump Administration.
It still has yet to be made official. Trump also granted TikTok an extension on a full-on ban for a fourth time, so the two sides now have until December to figure it out.
Update, September 20, 2025, 4:40PM ET: This story has been updated to include new information from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
This story originally appeared on Engadget
