Trump hopes to ‘finalise something on TikTok’ on Xi phone call

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump, who recently accused Chinese President Xi Jinping of working to “conspire” against the United States, hopes to

finalise the fate of video-sharing app TikTok

and make progress on trade talks in a phone call with the Chinese leader on Sept 19.

“I’m speaking with President Xi, as you know, on Friday, having to do with TikTok, and also trade,” Mr Trump said on Sept 18 in an interview with Fox News.

“And we’re very close to deals on all of it. And my relationship with China is very good.”

The call will be the second between the two men since Mr Trump returned to the White House in January, and the third since the start of 2025.

On June 5, the US president said Mr Xi had invited him to visit China, and he issued a similar invitation for the Chinese leader to go to the US.

So far, no travel plans have been made, but several analysts expect Mr Xi to repeat his offer, especially knowing that Mr Trump is always keen to be received with diplomatic fanfare.

“Each leader will aim to signal that he has outmanoeuvred the other” in trade talks focused on tariffs, Mr Ali Wyne, an expert on US-China relations at the International Crisis Group, predicted in a note.

The pair could settle the TikTok drama, after Mr Trump repeatedly put off a ban under a law designed to force Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell its US operations for national security reasons.

Mr Trump told reporters on Sept 18 that he hoped to “finalise something on TikTok”.

Under the deal, TikTok’s US business would be “owned by all American investors, and very rich people and companies”, he said.

He said he believes TikTok had boosted his appeal to younger voters and helped him win the 2024 election.

The US president on Sept 16 again

pushed back applying a ban

on the app, which had been decided under his predecessor Joe Biden.

The Wall Street Journal raised the possibility of a

consortium to control TikTok

that would include tech giant Oracle and two California investment funds – Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz.

The telephone talks come as the world’s two biggest economies seek a compromise on tariffs.

Both sides dramatically hiked tariffs against each other during a months-long dispute earlier in 2025, disrupting global supply chains.

Washington and Beijing then

reached a deal to reduce levies

, which expires in November, with the US imposing 30 per cent tariffs on imports of Chinese goods and China hitting US products with a 10 per cent tariff.

The phone meeting also comes after

Mr Xi organised a major summit in September

with the leaders of Russia and India – and invited North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to observe a major military parade in Beijing.

“Please give my warmest regards to (Russian President) Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un as you conspire against the United States of America,” Mr Trump wrote to Mr Xi on his Truth Social platform.

The US leader slammed India with

punitive tariffs for its oil purchases

from Moscow, and has called on European countries to sanction China for buying Russian oil, though Washington has not itself sanctioned Beijing.

“If they did that on China, I think the war (in Ukraine) would maybe end,” Mr Trump told Fox News. AFP