Donald Trump Is Saying There’s a TikTok Deal. China Isn’t
Zeyi Yang, Jake Lahut
created: Sept. 19, 2025, 7:02 p.m. | updated: Sept. 23, 2025, 5:41 p.m.
The United States and China may have agreed on a deal to prevent the social platform TikTok from being banned in the US—if you take US president Donald Trump’s word for it.
“Any details of the TikTok framework are pure speculation unless they are announced by this administration,” a White House spokesperson tells WIRED.
On Thursday, during a joint press conference with UK prime minister Keir Starmer, Trump boasted that the US should receive a “tremendous fee plus” for brokering the TikTok deal.
It’s not clear what fee he’s referring to—WIRED asked multiple White House officials, but none replied.
The White House also credited Vice President JD Vance—the top conduit between Silicon Valley billionaires and the West Wing—for playing a key role in the deal.
2 months, 3 weeks ago: WIRED