It took three postponements over nine months, but President Donald Trump has finally followed through on the legal requirement to either ban the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok or have an American-owned entity acquire it.

Last week, Trump signed an executive order approving the proposed acquisition of the ByteDance-owned entity TikTok by an American consortium that includes Oracle.

“This is going to be American-operated all the way,” Trump stated as he signed the order. “I have great respect for President Xi, and I very much appreciate that he approved the deal, because to get it done properly, we really needed the support of China and the approval of China.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt credited Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Vice President JD Vance, and Ambassador Jamieson Greer for working to get this deal done. “They were able to accomplish a deal that puts America first and keeps TikTok open for all of the young Americans and all of the small businesses who have benefited greatly from selling their products and really creating a name for themselves on this highly popular app,” Leavitt explained.

While Beijing has yet to officially sign the agreement, Leavitt noted that she was “100 percent confident" it was a done deal.

The details of the deal create a seven-seat board of directors, representing the consortium of Americans who will own 80% of the company and hold six of the board seats. China will have a 20% stake in the company and will be entitled to just one seat on the board in perpetuity.

Furthermore, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison will hold a role in safeguarding U.S. users’ data, with China having no access to the data. The algorithm will also be solely under the control of Americans.

Based on the consortium of American owners, TikTok, like X under Elon Musk, will become a free speech-supporting social media platform. This is likely one of the big reasons Trump sought to preserve the social media company rather than shut it down. He recognizes the impact TikTok had on his election and as a platform to reach younger voters.

In a sense, this preservation of TikTok works more in favor of the Right than the Left, as it ensures conservatives will have access to the broad digital public square, the very thing that the Biden administration pushed to severely limit.

That said, the fact that China will still hold an ownership stake in TikTok has led some conservatives to criticize the deal. The Heritage Foundation’s Wesley Hodges and Steve Yates, senior research fellow at the Asian Studies Center, view any deal that allows Beijing to hold a stake in the company as dangerous. "TikTok is a weapon of the Chinese Communist Party. For too long, it has harvested Americans’ data, manipulated our children, and censored the truth to serve Beijing,” they warn. “A halfway deal that leaves a backdoor open for Beijing, such as an algorithm license, presents the same threats we currently face and should be rejected. If China refuses real divestment, President Trump should call their bluff and ban TikTok outright.”

It will be interesting to see if this deal does, in fact, get signed by Beijing, what the finalized details will be, and what China receives in return.