Trump Approves TikTok U.S. Ownership Deal

On Sept. 25 President Trump signed an executive order approving a roughly $14 billion deal to shift TikTok’s U.S. operations into majority American ownership, giving U.S. investors — led by Oracle and including Silver Lake, Rupert Murdoch and Michael Dell — about 80% while ByteDance would retain under 20%. Oracle is set to anchor security, provide cloud services and hold licensed control of the recommendation algorithm. The White House says U.S. servers and a retrained algorithm will be overseen by a U.S.-dominated board of cybersecurity and national-security experts to address data and influence concerns. The administration says the deal averts a looming bipartisan divestiture ban and preserves the app for millions of American creators and small businesses. Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance said Chinese President Xi Jinping personally approved the framework on a call, though Beijing has not publicly confirmed the agreement and Chinese regulatory signoffs remain required. Observers caution that legal, constitutional and practical questions remain about free speech, jobs, data security and whether Chinese influence is fully eliminated.