TikTok Ban Averted as U.S. and China Reach ‘Framework’ of a Deal

The Trump Administration said it had reached a “framework” deal with China over the popular social media app TikTok on Monday, just days before it was set to be blocked for an estimated 135 million users in the United States. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters following two days of trade talks with China in Madrid that a tentative deal had been agreed, and that Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would speak on Friday to “complete” the deal. “The framework is for a switch to a U.S.-controlled ownership,” Bessent said, without providing further details. Read More: The Grim Reality of Banning TikTok Trump had indicated that a deal had been reached in a post on social media shortly before Bessant’s announcement. “The big Trade Meeting in Europe between The United States of America, and China, has gone VERY WELL!” Trump posted on Truth Social. “A deal was also reached on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save.” TikTok’s legal presence in the United States has been up in the air since a 2024 law, which was upheld by the Supreme Court, forced the company’s Chinese owner ByteDance to sell to a U.S. buyer, after lawmakers cited security concerns. The law led to TikTok going dark in the United States on the evening of Jan. 18, and disappearing from U.S. app stores—only for the video app to come back online hours later after Trump announced he extended the deadline for ByteDance to sell. Trump has since extended this deadline several more times, and the most recent deadline was Sept. 17. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that deadline could be extended to finalize the framework deal. Trump’s recent role as championing TikTok comes as a sharp turn from his first term in office, when Trump moved to ban the app himself. In August, the White House launched its own TikTok account, a signal that Trump was working on completing a deal and was confident in the longevity of the app.