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White House to hold meeting on TikTok

The White House, alongside investors like Blackstone and Andreessen Horowitz, is exploring options for ByteDance’s U.S. operations to ensure non-Chinese ownership.

At a time when legal pathways to the US have been slashed and criminal groups are raking in money from migrant smuggling, social media apps like TikTok have become an essential tool for smugglers and migrants alike. (AP photo)

U.S. President Donald Trump will consider on Wednesday a final proposal related to TikTok ahead of an April 5 deadline for the app to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a U.S. ban, a White House official told Reuters.

There will be a meeting at the Oval Office involving Vice President JD Vance, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, national security adviser Mike Waltz, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, said the official, confirming a CBS News report. Private equity firm Blackstone is discussing joining ByteDance’s existing non-Chinese shareholders, led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic, in contributing fresh capital to bid for TikTok’s U.S. business, Reuters reported last week.

On Sunday, Trump said a deal with ByteDance to sell the short video app used by 170 million Americans would be struck before the deadline on April 5.

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Trump set the deadline in January for TikTok to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a U.S. ban on national security grounds due to have taken effect that month under a 2024 law.

U.S. venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is in discussions to invest in TikTok as part of an effort led by Trump to gain control of the app, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

Silicon Valley Trump supporter and Andreessen Horowitz’s co-founder, Marc Andreessen, is in talks to add new outside investment that will buy out TikTok’s Chinese investors, as part of a bid led by Oracle and other American investors to carve it out of its parent company ByteDance, FT said. Reuters reported on Friday that private equity firm Blackstone is evaluating making a small minority investment in TikTok’s U.S. operations, according to two people familiar with the matter.

TikTok and Andreessen Horowitz did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. The talks on the future of TikTok are coalescing around a plan for the biggest non-Chinese investors in ByteDance to raise their stakes and acquire the short-video app’s U.S. operations, Reuters reported last month. Trump said last month that his administration was in touch with four different groups about a prospective TikTok deal, without identifying them.

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In the closely watched sale of TikTok, the White House is playing the role of an investment bank, with Vance running the auction.