PULSE POINTS

❓WHAT HAPPENED: President Donald J. Trump announced approval for a TikTok deal, following a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

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📍WHEN & WHERE: The call occurred on Friday, September 19, 2025, with plans for an in-person meeting at the APEC Summit in South Korea next month.

💬KEY QUOTE: “The call was a very good one, we will be speaking again by phone, appreciate the TikTok approval, and both look forward to meeting at APEC!” – Donald Trump

🎯IMPACT: A framework agreement was reached for TikTok’s U.S. operations, addressing national security concerns and removing Chinese control over the social media app and its data.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump announced he has finalized the deal for the American purchase of the video social media app TikTok after speaking with Chinese President Xi Jinping. In addition, he confirmed that the two leaders will meet in person at the APEC Summit in South Korea next month.

“I just completed a very productive call with President Xi of China. We made progress on many very important issues including Trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the War between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok Deal,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Friday. He continued: “I also agreed with President Xi that we would meet at the APEC Summit in South Korea, that I would go to China in the early part of next year, and that President Xi would, likewise, come to the United States at an appropriate time.”

Trump added: “The call was a very good one, we will be speaking again by phone, appreciate the TikTok approval, and both look forward to meeting at APEC!”

TikTok, owned by Chinese conglomerate ByteDance, has been under scrutiny for years due to national security concerns. A law passed during Joe Biden’s presidency required the app to be sold to U.S. investors or shut down. However, Biden deferred enforcement of the law, leaving it to the Trump administration, which has extended the sale-or-ban deadline multiple times as negotiations continued.

After over six months of negotiations, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Monday that U.S. and Chinese officials have reached a “framework” agreement for TikTok. China’s Vice Minister of Commerce, Li Chenggang, remarked that the consensus “serves the interests of both sides.”  While specific details remain unclear, the U.S. investor consortium is said to include Oracle, Silver Lake, and Andreessen Horowitz.

Trump also noted that the U.S. government would receive a “tremendous fee” for facilitating the deal.

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