Bessent Says Trump’s Willingness To Shut Down TikTok In US Pushed China To Make A Deal: Report

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly stated on Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s willingness to let TikTok shut down in the United States pushed China to make a deal with his administration.

In an interview with CNBC, Bessent stated that the Trump administration prioritized national security over allowing the ByteDance-owned social media platform to operate in the U.S., and that this decision was what “turned the tide” in the TikTok deal framework with China.

“President Trump made it clear that he would have been willing to let TikTok go dark, that we were not going to give up national security in favor of the deal,” Bessent said.

The deadline for TikTok-parent ByteDance to divest the social media app’s U.S. operations is set for Wednesday, September 17. If the U.S. and China do not reach a deal, TikTok faces a shutdown in the United States. Bessent added that while ByteDance and the investors in TikTok’s U.S. operations had reached an in-principle agreement about the commercial terms in March or April, President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs led to China putting the deal on hold.

“We were able to reach a series of agreements, mostly for things we will not be doing in the future that have no effect on our national security,” Bessent said in the interview.

Ahead of the deadline, reports suggest that Oracle Corp. (ORCL) remains among the top contenders to take over TikTok’s U.S. operations. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) also remains a possible suitor.

Meanwhile, U.S. equities edged up in Tuesday’s pre-market trade. At the time of writing, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, was up 0.15%, while the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) rose 0.19%. Retail sentiment around the S&P 500 ETF on Stocktwits was in the ‘bullish’ territory.

Also See: Dow Futures Flat Premarket As Fed Meeting Kicks Off Today: TSLA, ORCL, GOOGL, CMG Among Stocks To Watch

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.