Bessent Says ‘Final Deal On TikTok’ Has Been Reached, Trump And Xi Will ‘Consummate’ It In Korea
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave an optimistic update on the fate of the TikTok deal on Sunday, saying that a framework of a deal has been reached.
“We reached a final deal on TikTok, we reached one in Madrid. I believe that as of today, all the details are ironed out, and that will be for the two leaders to consummate that transaction on Thursday in Korea,” Bessent said during an appearance on Face The Nation.
“Has China agreed to give up control of the algorithm that determines what users see?” host Margaret Brennan asked Bessent, noting President Trump’s September executive order on TikTok. Bessent wouldn’t give details on what the final deal will look like.
A deal on the future of TikTok is set to be finalized, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says, telling @margbrennan a final deal was reached during U.S.-China talks last month in Madrid.
“I believe that as of today, all the details are ironed out, and that will be for the two… pic.twitter.com/psJNoiGYRN
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 26, 2025
The discussions to reach a deal with China on the massively popular ByteDance-owned social media platform TikTok have been ongoing since before Trump took office.
Shortly after Trump was inaugurated, he postponed the law signed by former President Joe Biden in April 2024 that would force ByteDance to divest or have TikTok banned in the United States. As recently as September, the president further extended the enforcement delay to provide time for an agreement to be reached with China.
“This is going to be American-operated all the way,” Trump said as he signed the executive order. “I have great respect for 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.”
According to the text of the executive order, the framework resolves the national security concerns by removing “the TikTok application and certain other applications from the ‘control’ of a foreign adversary and precludes any ‘operational relationship’ between a formerly affiliated entity controlled by a foreign adversary and the new joint venture.”
It also “prohibits the storage of sensitive United States user data in a manner that would place such data under the control of a foreign adversary and requires such data to be stored in a cloud environment run by an American company.”
Leif Le Mahieu contributed to this report.
