By Hollie Silverman

Copyright newsweek

In a video posted to TikTok Monday morning, President Donald Trump declared that young Americans who use TikTok “owe” him following the announcement and signing of a new executive order that allows the popular video-sharing platform to continue operating in the United States under restructured ownership.

“To all of those young people of TikTok, I saved TikTok, so you owe me big,” Trump said in the video posted to his account.“And now you’re looking at me in the Oval Office, and someday one of you are going to be sitting right at this desk and you’re going to be doing a great job.”

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters upon arrival on the south Lawn at the White House in Washington, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

The announcement came after lengthy negotiations between U.S. and Chinese officials, facilitated by a bipartisan mandate passed by Congress during former President Joe Biden’s term that required TikTok’s China-based parent, ByteDance, to divest its American assets to avoid a nationwide ban.

TikTok, with an estimated 170 million users in the United States—many of them young people—has served as a major platform for social interaction, entertainment, and information exchange.

Its future has been the subject of national debate since national security concerns over data privacy and foreign influence triggered lawmaker intervention in recent years.

The Trump administration’s latest agreement concluded a multi-year standoff over the Chinese-owned app’s operations and data safeguards in the United States.

This is a breaking news story. Updates to come