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President Donald Trump said that a deal with TikTok‘s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the video app used by 170 million Americans would be struck before a deadline on Saturday, April 5.
Trump set the April 5 deadline in January for TikTok to find a buyer or face a U.S. ban on the grounds of national security concerns that the app acts as a spying and propaganda tool for China.
“We have a lot of potential buyers. There’s tremendous interest in TikTok,” Trump told reporters on Sunday, according to Reuters. “The decision is going to be my decision, as you know, through Congress. They’ve given me the power to make the decision.”
The fate of the app, used by nearly half of all Americans, has been uncertain since an April 2024 law mandated that ByteDance divest itself of TikTok by Jan. 19, 2025.
Mortgage companies are among the many business sectors that could be impacted by a sale or ban of TikTok. Some previously told HousingWire that the the loss of the social media app would be harmful to consumer outreach efforts.
“Every loan officer has their own means of how to reach Realtors and potential borrowers. In our organization, we have a small percentage of loan officers that are really committed to reaching these individuals through social platforms,” Lindsi Flynn, director of marketing at Assurance Financial, said in December.
“However, the ones that do, that’s their main referral source. And I believe TikTok is a special place because the algorithm puts you in front of a network of people you may have never met before. It can help amplify brand awareness.”
The original idea to ban the app spawned during Trump’s first term.
In August 2020, he signed an executive order that banned American companies from any “transaction” with ByteDance and its subsidiaries, including TikTok. Several days later, Trump issued a second order demanding that ByteDance divest itself of TikTok’s U.S. operations within 90 days.
After Joe Biden took office in early 2021, action against TikTok didn’t significantly come into play until the House of Representatives passed the TikTok ban-or-sell bill in March 2024.
The company previously said that divestment was not an option and that the law goes against the First Amendment rights of both the company and TikTok’s U.S. users.
The Supreme Court ruled that the TikTok ban could go into effect in January. But Trump — who had asked justices to delay the deadline so he could negotiate a deal — signed an executive order that granted the app a 75-day extension.
Reuters also reported last week that private equity firm Blackstone is evaluating a small minority investment in TikTok’s U.S. operations. The move would reportedly involve creating a new entity and diluting Chinese ownership in the new business to less than the 20% threshold required by U.S. law.
