President Trump said he needs to learn more about a deal between TikTok and Oracle before signing off.
Angela Lang/CNET
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he isn’t yet prepared to sign off on a deal between short-form video app TikTok and technology giant Oracle, saying that he needs to make sure the deal addresses national security concerns about the app.
“I’m not prepared to sign off on anything,” Trump told a press briefing at the White House, adding that he expected the deal to be presented to him on Thursday. He emphasized the deal “has to be 100% as far as national security is concerned.”
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TikTok’s future in the US has been in limbo since early this summer after Trump targeted the app over concerns its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, could be forced to give data about American users to the Chinese government. ByteDance says that it keeps user data in the US with a backup in Singapore. The company has said it wouldn’t give data to the Chinese government if asked.
Trump has called for ByteDance to sell TikTok or risk being banned in the US. A deal with Oracle would make the US company the “trusted technology provider” in the US for ByteDance and is designed to address national security concerns.
Trump suggested he had misgivings about a deal that allows ByteDance to keep a majority stake in TikTok.
“Conceptually, I can tell you I don’t like that,” he said. “If that’s the case, I’m not gonna be happy.”
The president had initially indicated that the government should get a cut of any deal that took place after he called for the TikTok divestment. But he said lawyers had told him the government had no authority to require such a payment.
