President Donald Trump has put Vice President JD Vance and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz in charge of an effort to find a deal to rescue TikTok, according to Punchbowl News, citing several sources on Capitol Hill and the White House.
Vance has been tasked with “quarterbacking a deal to save TikTok,” one source familiar with the effort told the outlet. Waltz, along with the National Security Council, has been put in charge of addressing any national security issues that may arise.
This means that Vance and Waltz will examine tech, diplomatic, and national security issues as they attempt to hammer out some arrangement. They will be in charge of figuring out who will own TikTok or if the U.S. ban on the Chinese-owned app should go back into effect in April. The consequences of any deal could be massive if users are cut off. About 170 million Americans and millions of businesses use the app.
Congress passed a bipartisan bill last year to remove TikTok from American phones unless its Chinese owners sold it to a U.S. company due to national security concerns. The deadline for the law to take effect was January 19, a day before Trump’s inauguration.
But Chinese owner ByteDance hasn’t been willing to sell so far, and no clear offer has yet surfaced. Trump issued an executive order that extended the deadline to sell by 75 days — which ends in April.
App stores, which may face fines under the legislation, aren’t making the app available for fresh downloads.
Trump recently suggested that the U.S. government may take ownership of the app, possibly via a new sovereign wealth fund. The president has also indicated that Chinese companies could still be able to still have some interest in the app.
