The news: President Trump claimed on Sunday that Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan Murdoch, Michael Dell, and Larry Ellison are among the investors lined up to purchase TikTok.

• The claims came after Trump delayed the app’s ban again to December 16, and said he made “progress” in talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on TikTok’s US future on Friday, with a face-to-face meeting planned this fall.
• The framework under discussion would spin off TikTok’s US arm into a separate entity governed by six American board members and one ByteDance seat, with US user data housed on Oracle’s servers and the recommendation algorithm retrained domestically.

More on the buyers: The buyers Trump named are a who’s who of powerful conservative media and tech moguls who have curried favor with the administration.

• Lachlan Murdoch chairs News Corp. and leads Fox Corporation (including the influential conservative news network Fox News), roles inherited from his father Rupert. Fox has already financially benefited from advertisers looking to gain favor with the Trump administration.
• Longtime Republican donor Michael Dell is founder and CEO of Dell Technologies.
• Once a bipartisan donor, Oracle co-founder Ellison now strongly backs the GOP and Trump.
• Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, a vocal Republican and Trump supporter, is also reportedly part of the buying group.

Why it matters: While most Americans still get news from TV networks or digital outlets, per Ipsos and Axios, TikTok’s future is tied to maintaining trust with younger audiences, many of whom are left-leaning.

• Pew Research shows TikTok is the only major app where left-leaning news influencers outnumber right-leaning ones (28% vs. 25%). If ownership tilts conservative, that balance could shift.
• For Democrats, 69% say news on social media help them better understand current events, compared with 62% of Republicans. That reliance amplifies the reputational stakes if TikTok comes to be viewed as politically biased.