JD Vance to head up potential TikTok deal

Vice President JD Vance has been tapped by President Donald Trump to oversee a potential deal with TikTok, where Chinese company ByteDance needs to sell or divest from its stake in the company or the app will be banned in the United States. The deadline for the deal is April 5. 

Alongside Vance, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz has also been given the responsibility, according to Punchbowl News. According to a source who spoke to the outlet, Vance has been tasked with "quarterbacking a deal to save TikTok."

The assignment for Vance is high profile in the Trump administration, as Trump has put great effort into pushing ByteDance to sell off their stake. The national security aspect of the deal will also give Vance experience taking on issues related to China, the most influential and adversarial nation opposed to the US.

170 million Americans and many businesses are on the application, and the potential fallout is high. The White House has reportedly been in talks with Oracle as well as other US investors to take control of TikTok. Trump also floated the idea of having the newly created sovereign wealth fund to invest in the app.

The deal is also under a time constraint, as Trump ordered a 75-day extension when a law banning the application went into effect. In 2024, a bipartisan bill was passed by Congress that would ban the app in the United States unless ByteDance sold or divested from its stake in the company with a deadline of January 19. TikTok sued the US government along with a few users, claiming violations of their First Amendment rights.

The lawsuit went all the way to the Supreme Court, where the justices upheld the law passed by Congress 9-0. Upon Trump taking office, he issued the 75-day pause on the ban and has since attempted to sort out a deal where the Chinese company forgoes its stake in the social media application. ByteDance, however, appears to have little interest in selling.