Overview

• Posting from the Oval Office, Trump shared his first TikTok since the 2024 election and told “the young people of TikTok” they owe him for keeping the app in the U.S.
• An executive order signed in late September endorsed a U.S. investor consortium to take majority control of a new TikTok entity, with ByteDance expected to retain under 20% equity.
• The deal has not closed and lacks public sign-off from ByteDance or Chinese authorities, with antitrust review and other procedural clearances still pending.
• The White House says Oracle will audit TikTok’s recommendation algorithm and oversee its retraining as part of U.S. oversight of data and influence concerns.
• Vice President J.D. Vance relaunched his TikTok for White House updates and jokes about “sombrero memes,” while platform reactions to Trump’s return ranged from praise to trolling and calls to release the “Epstein files.”