In a statement on Friday, Trump said the deal marks a “dramatic, final, and beautiful conclusion” to prolonged negotiations over the app’s future in the United States.
“I am so happy to have helped in saving TikTok,” he wrote. “It will now be owned by a group of great American patriots and investors, the biggest in the world, and will be an important voice.”
Trump linked the development to his political support among young voters, saying TikTok “was responsible for my doing so well with the youth vote in the 2024 presidential election.”
He added that he hopes users “long into the future” will remember his role once the platform becomes fully American-owned.
He thanked Vice President JD Vance, along with members of his administration who he says were involved in finalising the agreement.
He further acknowledged Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying the deal required China's approval and expressing appreciation that Beijing signed off on it.
“I would also like to thank President Xi, of China, for working with us and, ultimately, approving the deal. He could have gone the other way, but didn’t,” Trump said.
TikTok’s ownership has been a key political issue in the United States for several years, with lawmakers raising concerns about user data and the platform’s ties to China.
The latest development, made on Thursday, follows months of pressure on ByteDance, the app’s Beijing-based parent company, to divest its US operations.
The platform was due to be banned in the US in January 2025 if its Chinese owner failed to sell its US operations to American investors.
Trump however repeatedly postponed the enforcement of legislation to take down the app.
The idea of a US TikTok ban was first floated by Trump during his first term in 2020 and gained momentum under Joe Biden's presidency.
In 2024, Biden signed a law demanding that ByteDance sell TikTok or face the ban.
A legal battle ensued between ByteDance and the US government, and in January 2025, the app went offline for US users for 12 to 14 hours.
That temporary blackout was restored after Trump pledged to reverse the ban.
In September 2025, Trump announced that he had reached a deal with China to keep the app running in the US.
In December, chief executive Shou Zi Chew said binding agreements were signed with American and global investors to operate TikTok's business in the US.
Under the agreement, a new business called TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC will secure US user data, apps and algorithms through data privacy and cybersecurity measures.
TikTok said the new joint venture will operate as an independent entity governed by a seven-member, majority-American board of directors, under Adam Presser’s leadership.
There are three managing investors for TikTok's US operations, each holding a 15 per cent stake: Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX. Oracle, the cloud computing giant chaired by Larry Ellison, a Republican megadonor and longtime Trump ally, will be responsible for securing the data of TikTok's American users and overseeing the retraining of the app's powerful content recommendation algorithm. According to the agreement, ByteDance will retain a 19.9 per cent stake in the business.
The remaining 35.1 per cent of the company is owned by a group of companies, including the family office of tech executive Michael Dell, another Trump supporter, and Vastmere Strategic Investments, an affiliate of Susquehanna International Group.
The board will also include TikTok's global boss Shou Zi Chew as well as executives from Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX.
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