Trump’s Treasury Secretary credits POTUS ultimatum for TikTok China deal

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that Donald Trump made it clear he was ready to shut down TikTok completely in the U. S., and that decision forced China to make concessions. “President Trump made it clear that he would have been willing to let TikTok go dark, that we were not going to give up national security in favor of the deal,” Scott said in an interview on Squawk ￰0￱ statement came just days before a critical September 17 deadline for ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U. S.

operations, or get ￰1￱ deal in question is part of a broader negotiation between the ￰2￱ China, with both sides trying to find a middle ground on data access, control, and ￰3￱ , the Beijing-based parent company, is under pressure to hand over control of the ￰4￱ of the platform to avoid a full ￰5￱ White House, under Trump’s second term, is now holding firm: no more delays, no more vague ￰6￱ and Xi to talk Friday as final details get locked in Scott confirmed from U. S.-China trade talks in Madrid that the two countries have reached a “framework” agreement for TikTok. “It’s between two private parties, but the commercial terms have been agreed upon,” he ￰7￱ and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to speak on Friday to go over the final ￰8￱ posted on Truth Social that the agreement involves “a certain company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save.” The app has millions of users in the U.

S., but that didn’t stop Congress from banning it from app stores last year, labeling it a “foreign adversary-controlled application.” Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told reporters Monday that the September 17 deadline might need to be pushed slightly to wrap up the paperwork, but warned that “there won’t be ongoing extensions.” The ￰9￱ already granted ByteDance more time, an executive order signed by Trump in January gave them 75 extra ￰10￱ extended it again in April and once more in June, but that’s ￰11￱ pushes back as ￰12￱ circle TikTok Li Chenggang, China’s lead trade negotiator, said the deal is real but warned Washington not to keep targeting Chinese companies.

“The ￰13￱ not continue to suppress Chinese companies,” Li said during the Madrid talks, reported by ￰14￱ Scott made it clear: the ￰15￱ full control over the American side of TikTok, or the app goes ￰16￱ Secretary Howard Lutnick backed that up in July, saying the app would be shut down entirely for ￰17￱ if China didn’t agree to ￰18￱ over the ￰19￱ pressure is mounting fast, and ownership is the final ￰20￱ told Fox News in June that he had “very wealthy people” lined up to buy TikTok and said he’d announce who they were in two weeks, but never ￰21￱ had already floated names like Oracle’s Larry Ellison and Tesla’s Elon ￰22￱ other bidders are also in the mix: AI firm Perplexity and Project Liberty, an advocacy group led by billionaire Frank ￰23￱ Trump calling TikTok a national security threat during an interview with CNBC last year, the White House launched its own TikTok account in ￰24￱ decision confused critics, but Trump hasn’t backed ￰25￱ needs to sell or shut ￰26￱ the clock ticking toward September 17, the outcome depends on how hard China wants to fight to keep hold of the ￰27￱ seen where it ￰28￱ in Cryptopolitan Research and reach crypto’s sharpest investors and builders.