Donald Trump Says China Would Approve TikTok Deal in ’15 Minutes’ If 54% Tariffs Were Lowered

Key Takeaways

• Unless a deal is reached, the TikTok ban is set to take effect on April 5.
• Donald Trump has said he is open to extending the deadline.
• The President told reporters “China is going to play a role.”

Donald Trump claimed a deal to sell TikTok and keep it operating in the U.S. was derailed by China’s opposition to fresh tariffs.

Following Trump’s latest extension, TikTok must be sold by June 18. But Beijing may still block a deal to extract concessions like tariff relief.

Tariffs and TikTok

In comments to reporters on Sunday, April 6, Trump said a deal to sell TikTok was “pretty close” before “China changed the deal because of tariffs.”

“If I gave a little cut in tariffs they would have approved that deal in 15 minutes,” he claimed, adding that it “shows the power of tariffs.”

Trump Favors TikTok Joint Venture

While the original bill targeting TikTok aimed for a full sale of the app to an American firm, ByteDance has publicly dismissed that notion.

Meanwhile, Trump expressed his preference for a joint venture that would give Chinese and American partners a stake in TikTok.

Vice President JD Vance and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz reportedly led the White House’s efforts to broker a deal. However, the recent firing of the head of the National Security Agency could complicate negotiations going forward.

Potential U.S. Buyers

With negotiations ongoing, several U.S. businesses and even the U.S. government have been considered potential buyers.

Some of the more credible candidates are Oracle, Microsoft, and a coalition of investors led by Frank McCourt, which includes Kevin O’Leary and Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian.

In the run-up to the recent deadline, Amazon and Zoop also made last-minute offers to buy TikTok.

Other names in the mix include Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast) and Elon Musk, although Musk has since stated he isn’t interested in the video app.

Several proposals to have the U.S. government take a stake have also been raised.

In January, Perplexity AI put in a bid that would see the government own up to half of the new entity.

Trump has also hinted that a proposed U.S. sovereign wealth fund may have a role to play.