After months of maneuvering over the future of TikTok, it took a pair of 11th-hour phone calls with two of America’s most powerful executives to persuade President Trump to agree to a tentative deal.
Key to getting the president on board with the idea, which involved Oracle Corp. and Walmart Inc. taking stakes in a new TikTok based in the U.S., was a thinly sketched-out plan to create a $5 billion education fund, described by people involved as a gesture to placate Mr. Trump. The provision came so late that when it was announced,…
