He told reporters at the White House he backs the deal with Oracle and WalMart that would see the creation of a new company that will assume TikTok’s U.S. operations. Trump said the new TikTok company would be controlled by Oracle and WalMart.
Trump offered strong support for the deal he said would create 25,000 U.S. jobs. “I have given the deal my blessing,” Trump said, “It’s a great deal for America.”
About 100 million Americans use TikTok and U.S. officials have expressed concern about user data and the potential for China to access that data.
The new company, dubbed TikTok Global, will have a majority of American directors, a U.S. chief executive and a security expert on the board.
Oracle and WalMart are expected to take significant equity stakes and ByteDance – TikTok’s parent – has agreed to significant security safeguards on the data of U.S. users with Oracle housing all data and getting the right to inspect the TikTok source code.
TikTok, Oracle and WalMart did not immediately comment.
The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a question Saturday on whether it will rescind an order set to take effect late Sunday that would force Alphabet Inc’s Google and Apple Inc from offering TikTok in their U.S. app stores.