September 15, 2025
What is happening with TikTok? Is it staying or going?
Let’s talk about it. Because I know there are mixed messages floating around.
I’m sure you heard this from the president just yesterday.
But then today you heard probably heard this today.
So which one is it? It’s the second one. According to the Treasury Secretary who is in Madrid to discuss trade deals with the Chinese –there is a framework for a deal to keep TikTok alive in the United States. President Trump hinted that announcement was coming in this social media message right before Secretary Bessent spoke to reporters. This framework was also confirmed by Chinese state media in this message from the on social media which says the “two sides reached a basic framework consensus on properly resolving TikTok-related issues through cooperation, reducing investment barriers, and promoting relevant economic and trade cooperation.”
Now that statement from the Chinese makes the president’s statement on the tarmac yesterday make more sense. Trump has done this before. He has threatened to let TikTok die as a negotiating position because as you already know and as I have been reporting for months – trump wants a much bigger trade deal with China. That is much more important to him. And he is using TikTok as part of that negotiation. In the past he has said he would reduce the tariffs on China if China would agree to some kind of TikTok deal.
That said – its very important for you to know – a framework of a deal is not a deal. This is not done. And we know absolutely nothing about what this deal entails or what TikTok will look like in the end. It could be similar to what we have now – or it could be radically different. We just don’t know. TikTok has not yet made any kind of public statement about this. You heard the secretary say president trump was going to meet with the Chinese president Xi on Friday.
We know that TikTok is set to go dark this Wednesday. That’s when trump’s last executive order extension expires. He could either sign another order to extend the deadline or he could not and TikTok would go dark. We’ll know more over the next two days.
