On Monday morning, the Trump administration announced a possible new business framework to keep the TikTok app available in the United States.
The plan would create a United States-majority-owned entity to manage the application, while prolonging the ban deadline to December 16, allowing more time for a settlement.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made a public announcement in Madrid, revealing that the two leaders, President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping, will speak on Friday, September 19, to attempt to finalize the deal.
Jonathan Aronson, a professor of communication at USC Annenberg and the Department of Political Science and International Relations at USC Dornsife, said that while anything can happen, he believes the deal is possible.
“This is a cheap way for Trump to get a little bit of relations with China,” Aronson said. “So I think the odds are pretty good that they will go through with the deal.”
The new framework is similar to the deal offered to Trump in April, right before Trump enacted massive tariffs on China, ending talks of the deal. Eighty percent of the stake would go to U.S investors, including Oracle, Andreessen Horowitz and Silver Lake, according to CNN.
The popular social media app has been considered a threat to the national security of U.S. citizens, being accused of illegally stealing American user data, and also negatively impacting mental health.
The first whisper of the app ban happened in 2020, when Trump enacted an executive order to impose broad sanctions against TikTok aiming to outlaw transactions and communications from the Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to the U.S. for national security reasons. The ban did not go through in 2020 due to Trump’s order being blocked by multiple federal judges.
Former President Joe Biden signed a bill on April 24, 2024, which gave ByteDance 270 days to sell the app to a U.S.-based buyer. This bill went into effect on January 19, 2025, leaving TikTok temporarily unusable.
Trump reinstated TikTok soon after, allowing users to regain access, signing an executive order to pause the ban one day later.
“I just thought it was kind of ridiculous,” said sophomore global studies major Vin Harris-Myers, adding that there have been multiple attempts to ban the app. “It’s never worked. I mean, I just think it’s a fun social media app.”
Freshman human biology major Julie Nguyen said she didn’t mind when the app got banned because “I needed to stop my addiction.”
Evan Han, a USC freshman health and human sciences major, is an avid TikTok user and said it’s a staple in his life.
“I wouldn’t be too happy (about the ban) but I think it would be a good change, in terms of not being on my phone so much,” Han said.
Aronson said he is “less concerned about stealing data” and more interested in the business aspect of the deal, saying that “Trump, as always, will try to make money off of it.”
Aronson questioned “whether or not the US will have access to the algorithms that TikTok uses to figure out who people are, what people are doing, and what they want to see,” adding that it seemed likely that Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison “who is one of the richest people on the planet, will put more money and take more control.”
Until a final agreement is made, Aronson warned, “stay tuned, because it could change.”