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The White House put Tucker Carlson on its list of potential investors in TikTok as it raced to find buyers for the app earlier this year, according to people familiar with the matter.
JD Vance, who President Donald Trump picked to oversee the TikTok deal, advocated for Carlson, said two of the people. Other potential investors on the list included venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and private equity giant Blackstone.
The discussions came as the administration sought a deal for TikTok ahead of an April 5 deadline for ByteDance, its Chinese owner, to sell the app or face its ban in the US.
The ban was legislated by the US Congress last year. Trump has twice extended the deadline, first from January to April, and then from April to June 19, and has said he could delay it again.
The White House’s proposed role for Carlson in a deal to buy the app was not clear. But the rightwing media star’s inclusion in the list suggests the Trump administration remains eager to preserve TikTok in the US — and potentially bring allies of the president into its ownership.
Carlson told the Financial Times last month that he was unaware that he was on the White House’s list of potential TikTok investors.
“I don’t know anything about that,” Carlson told the FT. “As far as I know, I read that the TikTok deal is on hold because of the trade war, because of the tariffs.”
“I can say this,” he added: “I was completely opposed and remained completely opposed to the Congress of the United States banning social media apps because they don’t like what’s on them . . . I was opposed to banning TikTok and was accused of being pro-China, which I’m not. But whatever.”
A spokesman for the vice-president declined to comment. Carlson did not respond to further requests for comment and Neil Patel, chief executive of Tucker Carlson Network, said he had “nothing to add”. TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.
Ahead of the April deadline, the White House was closing in on a deal that would spin off TikTok from ByteDance and create a US company to receive new investment, diluting the stakes of Chinese investors.
Under the terms of that deal, investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Blackstone would have owned about half of TikTok’s US business, while large existing investors including General Atlantic, Susquehanna and KKR would have held about 30 per cent of the new entity.
However, Beijing did not give its blessing to that deal after Trump launched a new trade war on China. The proposal remained on ice, according to people familiar with the matter.
In May, Trump told NBC that he had “a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok”, which he used to reach younger voters in the 2024 election.
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