Donald Trump confirmed on Sunday that the U.S. was “close” to reaching a deal with China over the purchase of TikTok and added that Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch would likely be part of the purchase of the wildly-popular social media app.
Trump has spent months delaying enforcement of a law banning TikTok that Congress passed in 2024 and Joe Biden signed into law. During that time, his administration has sought to engineer a U.S. buyer for the platform while the president has largely given away his motivation: he’s credited the site and its users for boosting his presidential ambitions during the 2024 campaign.
On Sunday, he sat down for an interview with Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy, for the inaugural episode of the latter’s show The Sunday Briefing. In the interview with Doocy, Trump quipped that “a man named Lachlan” would probably be involved in the sale, adding that the Fox Corporation CEO’s father would also be involved.
“They’re very well known people,” Trump said of the app’s prospective buyers. “Larry Ellison [of Oracle] is one of them. He’s involved, he’s a great guy. Michael Dell is involved. I hate to tell you this, but a man named Lachlan is involved. You know who Lachlan is? It’s a very unusual name, Lachlan Murdoch.”
Doocy shot back in response that at Fox, Lachlan was known as “Mr. Murdoch.”
Trump went on: “Rupert is probably gonna be in the group. I think they’re going to be in the group. Couple of others, really great people, very prominent people.”
The Independent has reached out to Fox Corporation representatives for comment.
Upon taking office in April, the president issued an executive order directing the Justice Department to pause enforcement of the TikTok ban until April. His administration has subsequently extended that reprieve for ByteDance, and did so again last week.
Many lawmakers on Capitol Hill have argued that the app poses a national security threat for a variety of reasons. Lawmakers are uncomfortable with ByteDance’s alleged connections to the Chinese Communist Party and laws in China they say will require the company to hand over Americans’ personal information or other data to Chinese officials if asked. Still others have expressed distrust in the app’s algorithm, either due to the spread of misinformation or political messages that clash with official U.S. policy — including content critical of Israel’s siege of Gaza.
In January, Trump boasted that his actions had “saved” the app for its millions of American users, many of whom were unhappy with news of the ban. The president also said at the time that “we’re going to make a lot of money” with the deal, presumably referring to American buyers. The app’s owners, meanwhile, thanked the Republican president with a message sent to all U.S-based users.
“My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress,” Trump then posted in April on Truth Social, after signing the extension.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a press conference this past week that Trump and China’s Xi Jinping would speak Friday to possibly finalize the deal. He did not disclose the terms of the deal, saying that it is between two private parties, but added that “the commercial terms have been agreed upon.”
Trump did not indicate that the deal was finalized on Sunday, and also refused to disclose the cost of the purchase: “A tremendous amount of money…oh, I’d rather have them [say].”
Past reporting has indicated that Trump’s imposition of reciprocal tariffs on China caused the deal to stall, meaning that a deal with ByteDance could herald a larger trade agreement with China as well.
While the original law banning TikTok passed with voted from both parties, progressives in particular have fumed that a failure to deal with the issue before the end of the Biden presidency set Trump up for another political and possibly financial windfall. Trump himself signed an order to ban the app in his first term, but backed down after a legal challenge.
Reacting to a post from Pod Save America host Dan Pfeiffer assuming that the eventual American board members of TikTok would likely be pulled from a list of pro-Trump billionaire donors, Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida tweeted on Saturday: “I’m not an “I told you so” kind of guy. But y’all remember that stupid TikTok ban?”
“I voted No on that one.”