Trump’s TikTok Deal: What Just Happened And Why Does It Matter?

President Trump said he approved a deal struck with U.S. companies Oracle and Walmart to keep TikTok alive, but the agreement does not accomplish what the president sought to achieve.

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Since July, President Trump has turned a wildly successful viral video app TikTok into his favorite punching bag.

Trump’s logic went something like this: Since TikTok’s corporate parent company ByteDance is headquartered in Beijing, TikTok could be used as an arm of the Chinese Communist Party to spy on American citizens or cause other mischief.

So the president repeatedly declared that TikTok needs to free itself from ByteDance’s control, or be shut down in the U.S. for good.