President Donald Trump signed an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday that’s intended to give the green light for U.S. investors to take a large stake in TikTok. But details of the proposed deal still haven’t been revealed, and there are plenty of hoops to jump through before it’s finalized.
“This is going to be American-operated all the way,” Trump said Thursday. “And great respect [sic] for President Xi, and I very much appreciate that he approved the deal. Because to get it done properly, we really needed the support of China and the approval of China.”
Trump has claimed that China’s President, Xi Jinping, has approved the deal, but it still needs formal approval from China, according to the Washington Post. And the Wall Street Journal reports that the group of new investors who are supposed to take over TikTok has yet to be finalized, and legal details haven’t been ironed out.
Who are these new investors? According to Trump on Thursday, Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, and Rupert Murdoch are among the “four or five absolutely world-class investors” involved. Trump recently sued Murdoch for defamation over a Wall Street Journal article about a birthday book made for Jeffrey Epstein and signed by Trump in 2003.
CNBC reported earlier Thursday that a new entity operated by Oracle, Silver Lake, and the Abu Dhabi-based MGX investment fund will control about 45% of TikTok. Thirty-five percent will be controlled by ByteDance investors and new holders, according to the business channel. And ByteDance will reportedly control 19.9%, the limit dictated by the law passed last year to force the Chinese company to divest or face a total ban in the U.S.
Trump tried to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020 through an executive order, but that was stymied by the courts and ultimately dropped early in Joe Biden’s first term. But a bipartisan group of lawmakers revived the effort to ban TikTok on national security grounds in 2023, and that law was passed in 2024 and signed into law by Biden.
President Trump pulled a complete 180 in March 2024 during the lead-up to the presidential election, insisting that he no longer wanted TikTok to be banned. And Trump has now delayed enforcing the law five times since he came into office in January. His repeated delays are almost certainly unlawful according to most experts, but Congress hasn’t acted.
One area where Congress may act, according to the Washington Post, is by questioning whether the proposed deal actually follows the letter of the law. ByteDance investors will still hold a significant stake in the company, and ByteDance will apparently keep control of the TikTok algorithm in some way, though there are still questions about how all of that may shake out.
A reporter asked Trump in the Oval Office whether he wanted to see the new TikTok algorithm suggest more MAGA-related content.
“If I could, I’d make it 100% MAGA-related,” Trump said to laughter from his underlings. “It’s actually a good question, but I would… If I could make it 100% MAGA, I would. But it’s not going to work out that way, unfortunately.”
But Trump then suggested other non-MAGA-aligned groups would still be allowed to exist on TikTok. “No, everyone’s going to be treated fairly. Every group, every philosophy, every policy will be treated very fairly,” said Trump.
Trump may insist that everyone will get a fair shake on the new TikTok, but about 30 minutes later, in the same Oval Office presentation, Trump signed a presidential memo targeting left-wing and anti-fascist groups for prosecution.
“These are anarchists and agitators, professional anarchists and agitators, and they get hired by wealthy people, some of whom I know, I guess… probably know,” Trump said. “You wouldn’t know at dinner with them. Everything’s nice, and then you find out that they funded millions of dollars to these lunatics.”
FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and senior advisor Stephen Miller were all on hand to make threats against left-wing groups, claiming that they’re “domestic terrorists.”
President Trump also claimed last week that TV stations that criticize him should get their broadcast licenses taken away.
CBS cancelled Stephen Colbert’s show under pressure, and ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel last week before reinstating him on Tuesday. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr made mob-like threats against ABC, and it remains to be seen how many more critics the Trump regime can successfully silence. Trump has previously tweeted that Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers are “next.”
The president doesn’t like even the mildest forms of criticism, and the U.S. government has no problem demanding that media platforms censor people who oppose Trump. So it will be interesting to see what happens to TikTok’s algorithm after any deal is completed. It’s hard to imagine a world where Trump allows anti-Trump content to thrive on social media.
But first, the TikTok deal has to be finalized. And despite Trump’s repeated insistence that everything is done, it seems like there are quite a few more hurdles before this one crosses the finish line.
