Trump announces agreement to keep TikTok operating in the US.

WashingtonDonald Trump has announced that an agreement has been reached with China so that TikTok can continue operating in the United States, following the conversations this weekend in Madrid with the Chinese delegation. "The major US-China trade meeting in Europe went very well!" the president wrote, adding that "I will be speaking with President Xi [Jinping] on Friday." The president said that "an agreement has been reached on 'a certain' company that the young people of our country wanted to save," referring to TikTok, as the legal deadline for the Chinese subsidiary ByteDance to sell it or it would cease to operate in the country passed this Wednesday. Beijing has not yet confirmed the agreement.

"The relationship remains very close!" Trump added, referring to Xi. The statement contrasts with the post from early September, when the president had a fit of anger upon seeing the Chinese leader accompanied by Russia's Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un during the celebrated military parade in Beijing. Trump then accused them of plotting against him: "Give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un as they plot against the United States."

Shortly afterwards, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed from the Spanish capital that both negotiating parties had agreed on a "framework" for TikTok's disassociation from ByteDance. Bessent explained that it would be an agreement between "two private parties" and that it would transfer the social app to US ownership. The president's economic right-hand man declined to give further details of the understanding, which is expected to be sealed on Friday during the conversation between Xi and Trump.

While the future of TikTok was still being negotiated, the White House opened an official account on the social network just a few weeks ago. The platform was key to Trump's good results among young people in the last election.

Upon returning to the presidency, Trump granted an extension to the TikTok ban, which had been postponed four times. The ban was approved by Congress in the final days of Joe Biden's presidency after certifying its ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The day before Trump's inauguration, the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the law requiring the platform to separate from its Chinese parent company should be enforced.