President Donald Trump said Sunday that Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch is involved in the United States’s negotiations with China over controlling TikTok’s algorithm.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Fox News’s Saturday in America that the administration is “100% confident” a deal will be signed to put the U.S. in charge of TikTok’s algorithm. Trump held a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday to discuss this deal and other matters, writing on Truth Social that it was a “very productive call.”
Trump said on Sunday that multiple people are involved in the U.S.’s negotiations regarding TikTok, including Murdoch, Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell, and Oracle Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison. Lachlan Murdoch’s father, Rupert Murdoch, is “probably” going to be involved, Trump said.
“Couple of others, really. Great people, very prominent people, and they’re also American patriots. You know, they love this country, so I think they’re going to do a really good job,” Trump said on Fox News’s The Sunday Briefing.
Trump also credited the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk and others with encouraging him to get on TikTok during the 2024 election cycle. He said this platform helped him do “so well” with younger voters, as Trump made gains with voters under 30 against former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump’s TikTok account would post regularly ahead of the 2024 election and would receive millions of views. However, Trump hasn’t posted to the platform since Election Day, in which he encouraged voters to stay in line to vote.
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Lachlan Murdoch’s involvement with the TikTok negotiations comes shortly after the Murdoch family concluded their succession battle over News Corporation, of which Lachlan Murdoch is also the executive chairman.
Trump will have a face-to-face meeting with Xi in November, when the two will meet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea. It will mark Trump’s first in-person meeting with the Chinese president since Trump began his second term.