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TikTok deal for U.S. venture delivers on Trump promise to save the app
The Supreme Court upheld the federal law requiring ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, to sell the social media app to a company outside of China or face a ban of the app in the U.S. (AP)
TikTok's announcement of an American venture to comply with a 2024 U.S. law allows President Donald Trump to deliver on his campaign promise to save the app that's used by more than a third of U.S. adults.
Under the new joint venture, TikTok user data will be protected in Oracle's U.S. cloud, TikTok said Jan. 22. Oracle is one of three managing investors along with Silver Lake, a California based investment company, and MGX, an Emirati-based company. ByteDance, TikTok's parent company based in China, retains 19.9% of the joint venture.
About a week after TikTok announced the deal, Trump said, "We got the TikTok deal done. Who the hell thought we could do that, right?"
In 2024, former President Joe Biden signed a law with bipartisan support that would have banned TikTok in the U.S. on Jan. 19, 2025, unless ByteDance sold the app to a U.S. company. Lawmakers passed the law because of security concerns about ByteDance and U.S. users' data. Since taking office in January 2025, Trump has signed a series of executive orders to push back that original deadline.
Nikolas Behar, a University of San Diego cybersecurity expert, said the new arrangement does not fully resolve security concerns.
"The product/code is still made in China but the services are hosted in Oracle data centers within the US," Behar said in an email. "There is still a high risk "
The left-leaning Center for American Progress said the deal leaves unanswered questions.
"The Trump administration negotiated this deal in near total secrecy," the center wrote. The law does not require disclosure of the deal's terms. The U.S. secretary of the treasury called the agreement "between two private parties," which the center wrote "seems to indicate these terms will never be made public."
In 2020, Trump sought to ban TikTok, but in 2024 he changed his position, mirroring a public shift.
"We love TikTok. I'm going to save TikTok," Trump told reporters in June 2024.
We rate this Promise Kept.
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Our Sources
TikTok, Announcement from the new TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, Jan. 22, 2026
Pew Research Center, Americans' Social Media Use 2025, Nov. 20, 2025
New York Times, Who Owns TikTok in the U.S. Now? Jan. 22, 2026
Center for American Progress, The TikTok Deal Leaves Many Questions Unanswered, Jan. 23, 2026
Roll Call, Remarks: Donald Trump Discusses His Plan for Savings Accounts for Children, Jan. 28, 2026
Email interview, Nikolas Behar, adjunct faculty in cybersecurity at the University of San Diego, Jan. 29, 2026