There is much more than a simple “hand” of Donald Trump in the operation that granted the Chinese social network TikTok the license to operate legally in the US, despite the ban desired by Congress during the previous Biden administration. According to the Wall Street Journal, in fact, the White House will cash a check for 10 billion dollars from the group of investors assembled to “Americanize” the platform loved by young people. But let’s go in order.
THE AMERICAN JV TO ALLOW TIKTOK TO STAY IN THE USA
Last January, it will be remembered, after a 2025 marked by back and forth that repeatedly involved the American and Chinese governments at the highest levels, the Asian software house owning TikTok, ByteDance, signed an agreement to create a majority American joint venture led by Adam Presser, former chief operating officer of the social network. This created an entity that could reassure the US by reducing Congress’s concerns.
During the Biden administration, in fact, the American legislator had decreed the expulsion of the social network from the area of the 50 States, considering that it did not have certain information about the security of US user data, destined to flow into China without the possibility of any control over the purposes of use and the methods of their storage. Compared to the more striking precedent in the hi-tech field of Huawei, imposed by Trump during his first term, this time the Americans’ suspicions seemed shared by numerous Western legislators who in fact moved to ban the app from the “State” smartphones of their respective public employees.
Suspicions shared by many and exploited by Trump, who debuted on TikTok precisely in the last electoral campaign and immediately reassured the approximately 170 million American users of the app by promising that he would place the spin-off of American activities at the top of his agenda, in order to create a twin entity “born in the USA.” And so it was: his administration worked hard throughout 2025 to bring about the birth of TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC whose official purpose is to protect the data of US users, but many speculate that in reality the Americans wanted a slice of the delicious Asian pie.
SOME FOLLOWERS GOT LOST ALONG THE WAY
The move was ultimately made but it was not painless: analysts from Sensor Tower reported a triple-digit uninstall rate of the app by American users: 150 percent precisely in the days of the handover. Analyses from another company, App Figures, show that, in the same period, downloads of a competitor increased: UpScrolled, created by Australian developer Issam Hijazi.
But Trump’s move especially allowed those who make money with ByteDance’s platform, the so-called creators, to continue working without seeing their empires built on virtual followers crumble overnight, delivering VIPs and third-millennium starlets to a swift and premature farewell from the scene.
WHAT THE TIKTOK AFFAIR HIDES
In short, Trump would not have saved TikTok just because he foresaw its propaganda potential: he would have done it because he was aware of the American business generated by the Chinese social network. And here we arrive at today, precisely, with the WSJ revealing that now the presidential administration has moved to collect for having acted as mediator, setting the table for the birth of TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC.
Many analysts had already noticed that the deal was awarded to investors close to Trump and now the news of the commission formalizes the favored treatment. Oracle, Silver Lake, the Abu Dhabi company MGX and others paid about 2.5 billion dollars to the Treasury Department at the closing of the operation and it seems they will have to make a series of subsequent payments until reaching the total amount of 10 billion dollars.
A 10 BILLION COMMISSION ON A 14 BILLION DEAL
The awarding, made without tenders but by direct call, does not seem very transparent. But administration officials stated that the commission is justified, arguing that without Trump the negotiations with China to complete the deal would hardly have gone through and recalling that the tycoon worked hard for the successful outcome of the operation. The operation, according to rumors, had a scope of 14 billion dollars, slightly higher than the commission the White House now intends to collect. But after all, it is known, time is money, especially that of the President of the United States.
