President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday, Sept. 25, that paves the way for American investors to own a majority share of TikTok.

Under the terms of the new deal, the popular social media platform’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, will retain less than 20% of the company, while the rest of the ownership will go to “certain investors.”

This “qualified divestiture,” the order explains, will “allow the millions of Americans who enjoy TikTok every day to continue using it while also protecting national security.”

“This is going to be American-operated all the way,” Trump said during a signing ceremony. “I have great respect for [Chinese] President Xi, and I very much appreciate that he approved the deal, because to get it done properly, we really needed the support of China and the approval of China.”

While the exact investors have yet to be revealed, Trump hinted that Oracle founder Larry Ellison, tech entrepreneur Michael Dell and conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch will be involved in the deal.

When asked by a reporter in the Oval Office if having friends like Ellison and Murdoch taking control of TikTok will make its content more “MAGA-related,” Trump admitted he liked the idea.

“I always like MAGA-related,” he said, to laughter. “If I could, I’d make it 100% MAGA.”

However, Trump added, “it’s not gonna work out that way, unfortunately.”

“Everyone’s gonna be treated fairly. Every group, every philosophy, every policy will be treated very fairly,” he insisted.

Some Democratic politicians, however, are pushing back on the deal.

In a statement to PEOPLE, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren warned, “Donald Trump wants to hand over even more control of what you watch to his billionaire buddies, and a foreign government is helping him do it.”

She called attention to Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX — another rumored investor in the new TikTok deal — which is owned by the United Arab Emirates government. Warren claimed that the “shady” group “cut deals to get sensitive American technology while enriching the Trump family’s crypto firm.”

“The American people deserve to know if the President has struck another backdoor deal for this billionaire takeover of TikTok,” she added.

PEOPLE reached out to the White House for a response to Warren’s allegation.

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Trump hinted at the impending TikTok deal during his recent state visit to the U.K., boasting that the social media app “helped get me elected.”

“As you know, we did unbelievably well with youth, like, at a level that no Republican has ever even dreamt of. And, you know, look, I think we won it for a lot of reasons, but that was a reason we won the election by such a big number,” he said.

“TikTok has tremendous value,” Trump continued. “The United States has that value in its hand because we’re the ones that have to approve it…The people that are investing in it are among the greatest investors in the world, the biggest, the richest, and they’ll do a great job.”

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on 2025-09-26 18:40:00.
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