Trump’s security adviser denies Chinese continued ownership of TikTok, Reuters reports

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump will not rule out continuing Chinese ownership of TikTok if steps are taken to keep American users’ data safe in the U.S., incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz told CNN on Sunday.

TikTok stopped working for its 170 million US users on Sunday after a law was passed to prevent the app from continuing due to concerns by US politicians that Americans’ data could be misused by Chinese authorities.

Waltz told CNN that the president-elect is working to “save TikTok” and won’t block continued Chinese ownership “combined with firewalls to ensure that data is protected here on American soil.”

After taking office on Monday, Trump said he might grant TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban.

Waltz spoke to CBS News on Sunday and said Trump needed time to resolve issues related to Tik Tok, but said an extension was needed to evaluate potential buyers for Tik Tok.

However, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, sent mixed signals, saying he believed Trump would push TikTok parent ByteDance to sell the app.

“The way we read that is that he’s trying to force a real divestiture, a change of hands, ownership,” Johnson said. “The members of Congress are concerned not with the platform, but with the Chinese Communist Party.”

Some of Trump’s Republicans in Congress have opposed TikTok’s proposed extension.

“There is absolutely no legal basis for any kind of ‘ban’ effective date,” Republican US Senators Tom, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Pete Ricketts said in a joint statement on Sunday.

(This story has been edited to clarify that the position does not require Senate confirmation on Article 3.)