Trump Changes His TikTok Tune

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, U.S. President Donald Trump has given TikTok’s deal with Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ:ORCL) and Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) “his blessing,” resolving a dramatic back-and-forth in which the Trump administration labeled the popular video-sharing app a “national security” risk.

“I have given the deal my blessing, if they get it done that’s OK too, if they don’t that’s fine too,” Trump said at the White House on Saturday, noting that if completed the deal would create a new company, named TikTok Global, which will likely be based in Texas.

The decision comes a day after TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance Ltd., filed a complaint in a Washington federal court challenging the Trump administration’s decision to ban the Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat and TikTok starting Sept. 20.

ByteDance’s complain stated that Trump exceeded his authority when he blocked people in the U.S. from downloading WeChat and TikTok, and that he did so for political reasons rather than for national security and data privacy concerns.

TikTok says it has 100 million U.S. users.

With the announcement of a deal, the Trump administration said it would delay the ban that was set to take effect at 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

In announcing the agreement, Trump said that TikTok’s American version would not be in any way affiliated with China, and that security would be a top priority. In fact, the deal guarantees the video-sharing app storing all its US user data on Oracle’s cloud.

“Oracle will quickly deploy, rapidly scale, and operate TikTok systems in the Oracle Cloud,” said in a statement Oracle CEO Safra Catz.

“We are a hundred percent confident in our ability to deliver a highly secure environment to TikTok and ensure data privacy to TikTok’s American users, and users throughout the world. This greatly improved security and guaranteed privacy will enable the continued rapid growth of the TikTok user community to benefit all stakeholders,” Catz added.

TikTok said Oracle and Walmart could acquire up to a cumulative 20% stake in the new company. Oracle’s stake would be 12.5%, and Walmart’s would be 7.5%, the companies said in separate statements.