What To Know About Trump's Trade Talks With China

Understanding trade talks during President Trump's second term of presidency is no easy feat. This is especially true when it comes to TikTok. While talk of potentially high tariffs on Chinese imports – as well as retaliatory tariffs on United States exports — have created a thick cloud of uncertainty over international trade in 2025, the future of TikTok has been left particularly uncertain for months.

TikTok is a video-forward social media platform that much of the world thinks of as the reason people stare at their phones all day. Even if someone doesn't have an official TikTok account, chances are good they have cooked a recipe inspired by a TikTok clip or even bought something because a product went viral on the app. However, for any positives the time-consuming app might offer, there is significant talk regarding the negative aspects of TikTok's user data – specifically on whether that data is being inappropriately used. Plus, there has been an ongoing debate over whether TikTok poses a threat to national security.

TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, is a Chinese tech firm that has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. However, many U.S. politicians have maintained their concern that the app is used to spread propaganda. As such, some form of TikTok ban has been in the works since the final year of President Biden's term — when a law was passed in which the app must be banned in the U.S. or sold by it's China-based owners. However, that ban has been on pause since Trump's inauguration day. Now, as trade talks resume with China, there could finally be a resolution on the future of TikTok in the U.S.

A potential deal to keep TikTok in the U.S. could be on the horizon. On September 22, 2025, The Wall Street Journal first reported that the U.S. and China have sketched out a new set of U.S. operations for the China-owned app. After a late September call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Trump, arrangements were discussed to allow U.S. investors to own 80% of TikTok, thereby reducing ByteDance's ownership below 20%, which would therefore be in line with the U.S. law passed in 2024 regarding its ownership.

Allowing a U.S. consortium to primarily own TikTok would also change how the U.S. algorithmic operations would work. These broad discussions include notes on retraining the algorithm that recommends content, presumably more to the tastes of the specific investors involved. Those potential investors, though not yet formally confirmed, are likely to include private equity firm Silver Lake, cloud company Oracle, and Susquehanna International. Several of the investment leaders involved in this deal are already close to Trump — and the cost of the investment is set to be in the multi-billions.

Of course, while it is rumored that an executive order will seal this potential TikTok deal in short order, nothing is yet official. Those wondering if they can keep watching TikTok without downloading a new app may want to keep an eye out for official news, and potentially brush up on how to make money from TikTok while they still can.