Vice President JD Vance was reportedly tapped Friday to forge a deal to save TikTok.
President Trump has assigned Vance to find a buyer for the popular Chinese-owned social media app ahead of an April 5 deadline for it to be sold or shut down.
Vance, who ran a hedge fund before running for office, will be looking to find a deep-pocketed tech titan to snap up the American operations of the app.
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, a longtime harsh critic of China, will also be part of the effort led by Vance, Punchbowl News first reported.
Congressional hawks from both parties have long warned about the national security threat posed by TikTok because it can access the data of its 170 million American users.
Republicans and Democrats united to overwhelmingly pass a bill ordering TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app’s U.S. operations by January 19, the day before Trump’s inauguration, or be shut down.
Trump, who once harshly criticized TikTok, flip-flopped to sign an executive order on his first day in office delaying for 75 days the enforcement of the law.
Now the White House is under pressure to forge a deal that can appease conservative China hawks while keeping happy the legions of Americans who use the app for everything from e-commerce to funny cat videos and political takes across the political spectrum.
Many potential buyers have been put forward including Microsoft, Trump ally Elon Musk or a group fronted by billionaire Frank McCourt and “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary.
Trump has floated the idea of the federal government taking a stake in TikTok through the new sovereign wealth fund he launched.