Donald Trump said on Wednesday he is not ready to sign off on the Oracle-TikTok deal since he has not yet seen it himself.
"No, I'm not prepared to sign off on anything – I have to see the deal", Trump told reporters, citing security concerns.
When asked whether the US government would benefit from the deal, he replied that there is no legal way to ensure that the money from the TikTok deal goes to the government. He added that he will receive the report from his administration on Thursday morning.
"They going to be reporting to me tomorrow morning and I'll let you know", the presdient said.
US software company Oracle has emerged as a frontrunner in the bid to acquire TikTok's US operations from ByteDance. The President has expressed his desire to see the US government compensated for facilitating the transaction, but the plan is hampered by regulatory roadblocks, which prohibit direct payments to the Treasury Department.
Trump has been accusing TikTok of having poor data security that would enable the government in Beijing to steal information on American users of the Chinese app.
He has threatened to ban TikTok in the United States by 20 September if it does not sell itself to a US entity. In response, ByteDance, in response, says it has taken extraordinary measures to protect the privacy and security of its US users and has filed a suit against his administration, while actively seeking a domestic partner to avoid being shut down.
