US President Donald Trump (Pic credit: AP)
Trump Tariffs hurt
TikTok deal
. The US President Donald Trump just admitted the same. According to a report in Bloomberg, The US President made the admission to reporters on Air Force One as he returned to Washington after a weekend of golf in Florida. China’s objections to new US tariffs stalled a deal to sell off TikTok and keep it operating in the US, President Donald Trump said, as per the report. Trump told reporters, “We had a deal pretty much for TikTok — not a deal but pretty close — and then China changed the deal because of tariffs.”
He added, “If I gave a little cut in tariffs they would have approved that deal in 15 minutes, which shows the power of tariffs.” Reports claim that before Trump announced widespread tariffs that went live on April 5, a deal was said to be close, advanced by a consortium of US investors including Oracle Corp, Blackstone Inc and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Incidentally, Trump had earlier said that he is willing to cut a deal with China to lower tariffs if the country agreed to a
TikTok sale
.
Second extension for China's TikTok app
On Friday, April 4, the US President extended the deadline for the TikTok deal by another 75 days. This is the second extension for the Chinese social media app, after Donald Trump earlier gave a 75-day extension on the day of his inauguration as the US President. Media reports suggest that the Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, have been working on an agreement to find TikTok an American buyer, as required by a bipartisan law enacted in 2024. However, any deal that allows TikTok to be sold to an American company requires China's approval. Under the 2024 law,
ByteDance
was required to divest TikTok’s US unit by January 19, which has been valued from $20 billion to as high as $150 billion.
Trump previously extended the divest-or-ban requirement, and on Friday signed another 75-day extension.
English (US) ·