U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed on Sunday that the U.S. and China have finalized their deal for the transfer of TikTok’s U.S. version to its new owners.
“We reached a final deal on TikTok,” Bessent said on Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan. Alluding to Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, Bessent added: “We reached [a deal] in Madrid, and I believe that as of today, all the details are ironed out, and that will be for the two leaders to consummate that transaction,” during a meeting scheduled for Thursday in Korea.
Trump had signed an executive order last month to advance a deal on the TikTok app with a group of mostly American investors. This deal would allow the app to stay online, in accordance with a bipartisan law passed in 2024 which required its U.S. operations to be divested from Chinese parent-company ByteDance for it to continue operating in the country.
READ: Trump signs executive order allowing TikTok US deal (
Under the new plan, American investors will take over the majority of TikTok’s operations and take charge of a licensed copy of the app’s algorithm. American companies are expected to own about 65% of the U.S. version of the spun-off company, while ByteDance and Chinese investors will own less than 20%. The new version of TikTok will be controlled by a seven-member board of directors made up of cybersecurity and national security experts, six of them Americans, according to the White House.
Bessent, who did not disclose further details, said that he was not part of the “commercial side of the transaction.”
“My remit was to get the Chinese to agree to approve the transaction, and I believe we successfully accomplished that over the past two days.”
READ: Trump expected to sign a TikTok deal on Thursday (
Barron Trump, the president’s 19-year-old son, has been floated by Trump’s former social media producer Jack Advent as a potential board member. Trump has indicated new U.S. investors include conservative media owners Rupert Murdoch and Larry Ellison.
This comes as the U.S and China have agreed the framework of a potential trade deal that will be discussed when their respective leaders meet later this week. According to Bessent, this included a “final deal” on TikTok’s U.S. operations and a deferral on China’s tightened rare earth minerals controls. He also said he did not anticipate the 100% tariff on Chinese goods threatened by President Trump coming into force, while China will resume substantial soybean purchases from the U.S. Both nations are reportedly seeking to avoid escalation in a trade war.