Trump administration set to receive $10 billion fee for brokering TikTok deal, reports

Trump administration is set to receive a fee of about $10 billion from investors involved in the deal to take control of TikTok’s US business, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The report said the payment is part of an agreement under which investors close to the administration gained control of TikTok’s US operations from its Chinese parent company ByteDance.

ByteDance in January completed a deal to set up a majority American-owned joint venture to avoid a US ban on the short-video app TikTok, which is used by more than 200 million people in the United States.

The new entity, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, will handle US user data, applications and algorithms.

It will do so through data privacy and cybersecurity measures, although few details about the divestment have been made public.

US Vice President JD Vance said in September that the new US company could be valued at about $14 billion.

According to the Wall Street Journal, investors including Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX paid about $2.5 billion to the US Treasury Department when the deal closed.

The investors are expected to make additional payments over time until the total reaches around $10 billion.

Officials in the administration said the fee was justified, the report added, citing Trump’s role in keeping TikTok operating in the United States and leading negotiations with China while addressing lawmakers’ national security concerns.

TikTok and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Earlier this month, Trump and US Attorney General Pam Bondi were sued by retail investors in two social media rivals of TikTok.

The investors are seeking to overturn the president’s approval of the deal that allowed ByteDance to form the majority American-owned joint venture.

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