News: President Donald Trump has tasked Vice President JD Vance and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz with overseeing a potential sale of TikTok, according to multiple sources on Capitol Hill and the White House.
Vance is in charge of “quarterbacking a deal to save TikTok,” according to a source familiar with the matter. Waltz and the National Security Council are in charge of the national security aspect of any potential transaction.
The assignment puts Vance and Waltz in the midst of high-profile tech, diplomatic and national security questions, including who will end up owning TikTok or if the U.S. ban on the influential and valuable social media app goes back into effect in April.
It’s a politically sensitive mission too, as the fallout could be intense if the 170 million Americans and millions of businesses that use the app suddenly find themselves cut off.
One of their first tasks may be handling hardline views on the app from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), the number-three Republican and chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. We’ll explain why below.
Like so much of what we write about here, the Vance/Waltz assignment sprouts from a mix of congressional dysfunction, as well as Trump’s own tendency to overpromise and skirt the rules.
In case you’ve forgotten, here’s how we got here:
In 2024, Congress passed a bipartisan law that would force smartphones to cut off TikTok unless the app’s Chinese owners sold it to a U.S. company. The deadline to put the app into American hands was Jan. 19 — the last full day of former President Joe Biden’s administration. That part was easy enough.
But TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, has very little interest in selling. As Biden’s presidency came to an end, there was scant evidence of a potential deal, leading to fearful pleas by Democrats that Biden pause enforcement of the law so Democrats wouldn’t get the political blame.
There was little grounds for an extension under the law either. So TikTok shut down dramatically, only to come back and thank Trump when he signed an order on his first day pausing enforcement for 75 days. That period ends in early April.
Publicly, most Republicans cheered that the self-proclaimed dealmaker-in-chief was taking charge of making TikTok American-owned. However, some national security hawks — led by Cotton — were upset with the talk of pauses.
We’ll note that, despite Trump’s claims that his administration is holding off on enforcement, the phone app stores that face potentially huge fines under the law still aren’t making TikTok available for new downloads.
Now, Vance and Waltz will be in charge of making a deal that addresses all those issues and does so quickly. As if it didn’t seem complicated enough, Trump has also floated that the U.S. government itself might own some of the app, potentially through a newly created sovereign wealth fund. Trump has also suggested that Chinese firms might be able to retain some interest in TikTok.
Vance, of course, is a former venture capitalist, meaning he does have the benefit of coming from the tech deal-making world. Vance is the Senate whisperer too, should Cotton and his fellow hawks continue raising concerns.
There are some proposals on the table for Vance to start with as well. Trump has suggested Microsoft is interested in buying TikTok. The president also seems to like the idea of Elon Musk doing so as well. Billionaire Frank McCourt and his business partner Kevin O’Leary (the “Shark Tank” guy) have been campaigning to take over TikTok as well.
In fact, we’ve learned McCourt was back on Capitol Hill meeting with Republicans this week as he builds the case for his acquisition and recruits allies to the effort. Part of McCourt’s pitch for why he should buy TikTok is that he and O’Leary are actually proposing to fully end Chinese control.
McCourt, who was on the Hill ahead of Trump’s inauguration too, met with Cotton. Here’s the download via Cotton spokesperson Patrick McCann:
Cotton and Vance may have a lot to talk about.
