Will Trump save TikTok on April 5th? President Donald Trump on Wednesday is reviewing a strategy to avert a TikTok ban scheduled to take effect Saturday, in a critical political test that will force the president to weigh the interests of China hawks in his own party against the online MAGA supporters who helped deliver him the White House. The White House has considered a menu of options in recent weeks, including a scenario where investors outside of China would increase their ownership of TikTok while Beijing-based ByteDance would retain ownership of the powerful algorithm that recommends what people see on the popular video app, according to two people familiar with the deliberations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the deal. In a sign of the last-minute nature of the negotiations, Amazon made an 11th hour bid to acquire TikTok, but it was not seriously considered by the White House, a person familiar with the matter said. Amazon declined to comment. The bid was first reported by the New York Times. Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post. Caption from article by Drew Harwell, Cat Zakrzewski and Naomi Nix.
