Trump signed executive order on TikTok deal. But the deal isn’t complete

By Samantha Waldenberg, Clare Duffy, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday clearing the way for the completion of a deal to sell TikTok’s US assets to a consortium of mostly American investors.

The order marks an important procedural step toward finalizing the TikTok sale, but the deal is not yet complete. Although both US and Chinese officials have signaled they are aligned on the deal’s framework, it will still likely require regulatory approvals from both countries. The full list of investors participating in the deal has not yet been released.

However, during the signing event, Trump said Chinese leader Xi Jinping had green-lit the deal and expressed confidence that it would be completed.

“I had a very good talk with President Xi,” Trump said, referring to a Friday phone call between the two leaders. “And we talked about TikTok and other things, but we talked about TikTok and he gave us the go-ahead” for the deal.

Thursday’s executive order states that the deal constitutes a qualified divestiture as required by the ban-or-sale law that passed with strong bipartisan consensus last year. The US law, which went into effect in January, bans the app unless parent company ByteDance divests approximately 80% of its US assets to non-Chinese investors. Trump has repeatedly delayed enforcement of the law.

“I have determined that the proposed divestiture would allow the millions of Americans who enjoy TikTok every day to continue using it while also protecting national security,” the order states. It adds that the deal to transfer control of TikTok’s US assets will also apply to ByteDance’s other popular platforms, Lemon8 and CapCut.

The president is also expected to extend the pause on enforcing the law by another 120 days so that paperwork and regulatory approvals for the deal can be completed, a senior White House official said Monday. Trump recently extended the pause until December 16 — meaning that if the deal is completed, TikTok’s assets likely won’t be formally transferred until next year.

ByteDance is also expected to sign an agreement laying out the framework of the deal with one or more of the new investors this week.

The deal will hand control of TikTok’s US operations, along with a copy of the algorithm, to the new US-based joint venture, according to the White House. That ownership group will have majority American investors — including Oracle and potentially private equity firm Silver Lake, Dell CEO Michael Dell and Lachlan Murdoch’s Fox Corp. — and be run by a majority American board of directors. ByteDance is expected to retain a stake no greater than 20%.

Oracle will oversee the app’s algorithm, as well as data and privacy issues, according to the White House.

The new US-based joint venture will be valued around $14 billion, Vice President JD Vance said during Thursday’s executive order signing. The value of TikTok’s US assets had previously been pegged at anywhere between $20 billion and $100 billion, depending on whether the agreement included access to the app’s algorithm.

“We’re going to keep on working at it, but this deal really does mean that Americans can use TikTok, but actually use it with more confidence than they had in the past, because their data is going to be secure and it’s not going to be used as a propaganda weapon against our fellow citizens,” said Vance, who had been tasked with leading the deal negotiations.

Major questions about the deal remain, including whether it will require American users to download a separate US TikTok app after the deal is complete. And while the deal will preserve access to the platform for its 170 million American users, some have already begun to raise concerns about TikTok’s algorithm — which determines what users see on the platform — being controlled by an investor group that includes at least some Trump allies.

While Trump said on Thursday that he would love for TikTok’s algorithm to be “100% MAGA,” both he and Vance sought to assuage concerns that the app’s new ownership would promote a certain perspective on the platform.

“If I could make it 100% MAGA, I would, but it’s not going to work out that way,” Trump said. “Everyone is going to be treated fairly, every group, every philosophy.”

Vance added: “We want the business to make decisions about content based on the interest of the business and based on the interest of the users, and that’s what we think will happen.”

The expected deal lays the groundwork for the first in-person meeting between Trump and Xi since Trump returned to office. The leaders discussed the TikTok deal in a call on Friday and are expected to meet next month at the APEC Summit in South Korea.

This story has been updated with new developments and context.

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