Trump Claims He Will Decide The Fate Of TikTok ‘Over The Next 30 Days’

President Donald Trump on Saturday denied a report that the White House is working on a deal with Oracle and a group of other outside investors to secure TikTok’s presence in the U.S.

While Trump said he was not in talks with the computer technology company, he claimed he would make a decision on the platform within the next month.

“No, not with Oracle,” he told reporters. “Numerous people are talking to me, very substantial people, about buying it, and I’d make that decision probably over the next 30 days.”

Trump repeated that he has a “warm spot in [his] heart” for TikTok.

“If we can save TikTok, I think it would be a good thing,” he said.

NPR on Saturday reported that the White House was involved in talks with Oracle and a group of other outside investors to take over the platform’s global operations. Under that potential deal, Oracle would have control over the algorithm and data collection, while Chinese company ByteDance would still have a minority stake in the platform, NPR said. The outlet added that the deal was first discussed at a White House meeting on Friday, with a second meeting expected this week.

TikTok already has an agreement with Oracle to store its U.S. user data.

Trump has previously said he would welcome Larry Ellison, Oracle’s founder and chief technology officer, owning the platform. But on Saturday he said he’s never discussed TikTok with Ellison.

Oracle has not commented on the NPR report.

Meanwhile, The Associated Press reported that artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI submitted a proposal to ByteDance that would have the U.S. government own up to 50% of an entity that would include Perplexity and the U.S. subsidiary of TikTok. ByteDance has not commented on the report.

Billionaire Frank McCourt has also submitted a formal bid to acquire the U.S. operations of the platform, while YouTube star MrBeast has also expressed interest in the app.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court upheld legislation forcing TikTok to divest its Chinese ownership by Jan. 19 to avoid a ban. Congress passed the legislation over national security concerns. In response, TikTok decided to temporarily go dark in the U.S. before restoring service to its American users after Trump pledged to extend the timeline for a potential deal. Trump made good on his promise last week, but the app remains unavailable on app stores in the U.S.

Trump has said he would like the U.S. government to be involved in a potential TikTok sale.

“What I’m thinking about saying to somebody is ‘buy it and give half to the United States of America, half and we’ll give you the permit,’” he told reporters last week.