Anwar al-Sadat (L) shakes hands with Menachem Begin in the presence of US President Jimmy Carter. AFP
Anwar al-Sadat (L) shakes hands with Menachem Begin in the presence of US President Jimmy Carter. AFP

1978 - The Camp David Accords: A flawed path to peace

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Updated 19 April 2025
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1978 - The Camp David Accords: A flawed path to peace

1978 - The Camp David Accords: A flawed path to peace
  • While the accords earned Sadat and Begin the Nobel Prize, they did little to secure lasting peace in the Middle East

CHICAGO: When Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat visited Jerusalem hoping to prevent future wars and resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict through negotiations, he did so believing a comprehensive peace would not only include Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, but most importantly an Israeli agreement to withdraw from the occupied territories and allow for a the establishment of a Palestinian state. 

During his lengthy speech to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, Sadat said: “I have not come here for a separate agreement between Egypt and Israel … Even if peace between all the confrontation states and Israel were achieved, in the absence of a just solution to the Palestinian problem, never will there be that durable and just peace upon which the entire world insists today.” 

Sadat did not live to see how right he was about how Israel’s refusal to withdraw from the occupied territories would fuel a surge in extremism, create more violence, disrupt his own nation and make regional peace impossible. 

Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s sole purpose was to remove the military threat posed by Egypt, divide the Arab “confrontation states” and block demands for Palestinian statehood.

Sadat was naive to trust Begin, one of the Middle East’s most vicious terrorists. Begin had orchestrated some of the most heinous civilian atrocities during the 1947-1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, including the massacre of nearly 100 civilians in the small Palestinian village of Deir Yassin.

How we wrote it




The front page of the newspaper reported the accords’ progress, noting the summit reached a “decisive stage.”

That massacre, including pregnant women butchered and their bodies thrown into the village water well, shocked the Arab population of Palestine, prompting a refugee flight of fear. Before his Knesset speech, Sadat visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial which, ironically, is built on the remains of Deir Yassin. 

He was wooed by Israel and the US, and treated like a distinguished head of state for making peace with Israel. He toured the US in 1978 and was feted at dinners in several major American cities, including Chicago, where I joined 500 other Arab Americans protesting against his “surrender.” 

The Camp David Accords earned Sadat and Begin the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize but scorn in the Arab world. The Arab League reacted by removing Egypt from its membership and moving the organization’s headquarters from Cairo to Tunis. 

Israel’s strategy was clear to everyone but Sadat. He signed the accords after 12 days of intense negotiations in 1978, between Sept. 5 and 17. But just weeks before this, Begin inaugurated the settlement of Ariel, on seized land in the West Bank more than 16 kilometers east of the Green Line, which became a symbol of Israel’s continuing war against Palestinian statehood and the center of Israeli settlement expansion.

Despite the disconcerting reality on the ground, Sadat went ahead and signed a formal peace treaty with Israel at the White House on March 26, 1979, officially ending the conflict between the two countries.

Key Dates

  • 1

    US President Jimmy Carter writes to Egyptian counterpart Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin expressing his commitment to finding “a lasting peace settlement in the Middle East.”

    Timeline Image Feb. 14, 1977

  • 2

    In a handwritten letter, Carter appeals to Sadat for help: “The time has now come to move forward, and your early public endorsement of our approach is extremely important — perhaps vital.”

  • 3

    After Sadat announces his intention to visit Israel, the country’s new prime minister, Menachem Begin, addresses the Egyptian people from Jerusalem pleading for “no more wars, no more bloodshed.”

    Timeline Image Nov. 11, 1977

  • 4

    Carter writes private letters to Sadat and Begin, proposing they meet.

  • 5

    Sadat and Begin arrive at Camp David for 10 days of talks.

  • 6

    At 9:37 p.m. Carter, Begin and Sadat board presidential helicopter Marine 1 and fly from Maryland to the White House. At 10:31p.m., Begin and Sadat sign a framework for peace.

    Timeline Image Sept. 17, 1978

  • 7

    Sadat and Begin jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

    Timeline Image Oct. 27, 1978

  • 8

    Sadat and Begin sign the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in Washington.

  • 9

    Sadat assassinated in Cairo by Islamic extremists opposed to the peace treaty.

    Timeline Image Oct. 6, 1981

When you look at the five fundamentals of the accord, only two were actually achieved. Egypt did get the Sinai Peninsula back, under demilitarized conditions, and the two countries ended their state of war and established diplomatic relations. 

But three conditions were never met: meetings to resolve the Palestine question, with the involvement of Jordan, stalled; the introduction of Palestinian self-government in the West Bank and Gaza within five years failed; and an end to the Israeli settlements never even began. 

The accords were never allowed to stand in the way of plans to entrench Israel’s hold on the occupied territories. When US President Jimmy Carter lost his reelection bid on Nov. 4, 1980, and Sadat was assassinated while reviewing a military parade on Oct. 6, 1981, Begin was given the green light to close the door on Sadat’s “dream.” 

Despite political differences, US President Ronald Reagan attempted to follow up on Carter’s Middle East peace vision and in August 1982 proposed a “freeze” on settlements, urging Israel to grant Palestinians “autonomy” as a step toward statehood. 




Israeli Premier Menahem Begin (L) and Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat converse and joke during a meeting in July 1979 in Alexandria. AFP

Begin’s reaction was swift. On Sept. 2, 1982, with Carter and Sadat out of the way, he led a Knesset move to consolidate Israel’s hold on the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights, increasing the Jewish settler population. Israel, the Cabinet declared, would “reserve the right to apply sovereignty over the territories at the end of the five-year transition period” toward Palestinian “autonomy” that was specifically envisioned in the Camp David Accords. 

In 1978, the settler population was only 75,000. By 1990, it had tripled to 228,000. Today, in excess of half a million Israeli settlers occupy at least 370 settlements, or “outposts,” in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. 

This year, on Jan. 20, the first day of his second term in office, US President Donald Trump lifted the sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on far-right settler groups accused of violence against Palestinians. 

Ironically, while the Camp David accords were supposed to create an environment of hope and optimism, the failure to advance them beyond the return of the Sinai created a sense of fatalism that fueled extremism, evidenced most dramatically, and with such shocking consequences, by the fateful attacks by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. 

Although the peace between Egypt and Israel remains, the failure to achieve peace with the Palestinians has ensured the accords remain little more than a formal version of an armistice agreement, and relations between the two countries are defined solely by military cooperation. 

  • Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter. He is a columnist for Arab News and hosts the Ray Hanania Radio Show. 


Russia says willing to help resolve India-Pakistan differences over Kashmir

Russia says willing to help resolve India-Pakistan differences over Kashmir
Updated 6 min 12 sec ago
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Russia says willing to help resolve India-Pakistan differences over Kashmir

Russia says willing to help resolve India-Pakistan differences over Kashmir
  • Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks to Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar amid regional tensions
  • Russia has been India’s largest weapons provider for decades, with both enjoying close ties since Soviet times

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke to his Pakistani counterpart on Sunday and offered Russia’s help in resolving tensions between Pakistan and India over Kashmir, the Foreign Ministry said.

“Particular attention was paid to the significant rise in tension between New Delhi and Islamabad,” the ministry said in a statement, referring to Lavrov’s conversation with Ishaq Dar, who is also Pakistan’s deputy prime minister.

“It was stressed that Russia is ready to act for a political settlement of the situation resulting from the act of terrorism of April 22 in the Pahalgam area of the Kashmir valley, in the event of a mutual desire on the part of Islamabad and New Delhi,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on Telegram.

Lavrov’s conversation with Dar took place two days after he spoke with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and also called for a settlement of differences between the two neighboring countries.

Suspected militants killed at least 26 people in last week’s attack on a mountain tourist destination in the Pahalgam area of the Kashmir valley.

Muslim-majority Kashmir is claimed by both countries and has been the focus of several wars, an insurgency and diplomatic standoffs.

Russia has been India’s largest weapons provider for decades and New Delhi and Moscow have had close ties since Soviet times. 
 


Iranian FM arrives in Pakistan to strengthen bilateral ties, discuss regional developments

Iranian FM arrives in Pakistan to strengthen bilateral ties, discuss regional developments
Updated 26 sec ago
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Iranian FM arrives in Pakistan to strengthen bilateral ties, discuss regional developments

Iranian FM arrives in Pakistan to strengthen bilateral ties, discuss regional developments
  • Iran has offered to mediate amid tensions between India, Pakistan over Apr. 22 attack in Indian-administered Kashmir
  • Seyyed Abbas Araghchi to meet Pakistan’s president, prime minister and deputy prime minister, says foreign office

ISLAMABAD: Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi arrived in Pakistan on Monday, the Pakistani foreign office said, with his visit aimed at strengthening bilateral ties and discussing regional developments amid Islamabad’s soaring tensions with New Delhi. 

Pakistan and Iran enjoy close ties and have signed several pacts in trade, energy and security in recent years. The two countries have also been at odds over instability on their shared porous border, but have quickly moved to ease tensions each time.

Araghchi’s visit comes in the background of surging tensions between India and Pakistan after the Apr. 22 attack in Indian-administered Kashmir in which 26 tourists were killed. India blamed Pakistan for the attack, a charge which Islamabad strongly denies. Tensions have soared between the nuclear-armed neighbors who have announced a raft of punitive measures against each other, while their forces have exchanged fire along their de facto border in Kashmir for 10 consecutive days.

“Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad on an official visit,” the Pakistani foreign office said, adding that he was received by Additional Secretary West Asia Syed Asad Gillani, Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan and other senior officials.

“He will hold important meetings with the Pakistani leadership including the president, prime minister and the deputy prime minister.”

In an earlier statement on Sunday, the foreign office said Araghchi’s visit reflects both countries’ commitment to strengthening bilateral cooperation. It said that the two sides will also exchange views on regional and global developments.

Iran has offered to mediate the crisis between Pakistan and India, with Araghchi saying his country is “ready to use its good offices” to resolve the standoff. The offer came amid fears that India may carry out limited airstrikes or special forces raids near the border with Pakistan. A Pakistani minister said last week that Islamabad has “credible intelligence” India is planning to attack Pakistan within days.

Pakistani leaders, who have already reached out to foreign capitals over India’s aggressive posturing since the Kashmir attack, are expected to discuss with Araghchi the latest crisis with New Delhi.


France, EU leaders spearhead effort to lure US scientists

France, EU leaders spearhead effort to lure US scientists
Updated 05 May 2025
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France, EU leaders spearhead effort to lure US scientists

France, EU leaders spearhead effort to lure US scientists

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen host a Paris conference Monday to attract US researchers ready to relocate because of President Donald Trump’s policies.
EU commissioners, scientists and ministers for research from member countries will discuss, among other things, financial incentives at the gathering to lure disgruntled American scientists across the Atlantic.
Paris’s Sorbonne university is hosting the conference, called “Choose Europe for Science,” which is to close with speeches by Macron and von der Leyen.

 

Under Trump, universities and research facilities in the United States have come under increasing political and financial pressure, including from threats of massive federal funding cuts.
Research programs face closure, tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired, while foreign students fear possible deportation for their political views.
The European Union hopes to offer an alternative for researchers and, by the same token, “defend our strategic interests and promote a universalist vision,” an official in Macron’s office told AFP.
The French president had already last month appealed to foreign, notably US, researchers to “choose France” and unveiled plans for a funding program to help universities and other research bodies cover the cost of bringing foreign scientists to France.

Shortly before, Aix Marseille University in the south of the country said its “Safe Place for Science” scheme received a flood of applicants after announcing in March it would open its doors to US scientists threatened by cuts.

 

Last week, France’s flagship scientific research center CNRS launched a new initiative aimed at attracting foreign researchers whose work is threatened and French researchers working abroad, some of whom “don’t want to live and raise their children in Trump’s United States,” according to CNRS President Antoine Petit.
An official in Macron’s office said Monday’s conference comes “at a time when academic freedoms are retreating and under threat in a number of cases and Europe is a continent of attractiveness.”
Experts say, however, that while EU countries can offer competitive research infrastructure and a high quality of life, research funding and researchers’ remuneration both lag far behind US levels.
But CNRS’s Petit said last week he hoped that the pay gap will seem less significant once the lower cost of education and health, and more generous social benefits are taken into account.
Macron’s office said France and the EU are targeting researchers in a number of specific sectors, including health, climate, biodiversity, artificial intelligence and space.
 


Former Vice President Pence defends US Constitution after getting Profile in Courage Award

Former Vice President Pence defends US Constitution after getting Profile in Courage Award
Updated 05 May 2025
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Former Vice President Pence defends US Constitution after getting Profile in Courage Award

Former Vice President Pence defends US Constitution after getting Profile in Courage Award
  • Pence received the award for his refusal to go along with President Donald Trump’s efforts to remain in office after losing the 2020 election
  • In his acceptance, Pence said the Constitution is "what binds us across time and generations. .... It’s what makes us one people.”

BOSTON: Former Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday repeatedly invoked the Constitution and said it is what “binds us all together” after receiving the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.
Pence received the award for his refusal to go along with President Donald Trump’s efforts to remain in office after losing the 2020 election. The award recognizes Pence “for putting his life and career on the line to ensure the constitutional transfer of presidential power on Jan. 6, 2021,” the JFK Library Foundation said.
“To forge a future together, we have to find common ground,” Pence said. “I hope in some small way my presence here tonight is a reminder that whatever differences we may have as Americans, the Constitution is the common ground on which we stand. It’s what binds us across time and generations. .... It’s what makes us one people.”
His comments came hours after an interview with Trump aired in which he was asked whether US citizens and noncitizens both deserve due process as laid out in the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. Trump was noncommittal.
“I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know,” Trump said when pressed in an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker. It was taped Friday at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida and aired Sunday.
Pence never mentioned Trump during his 10-minute speech but made several references to the Trump administration.

Referencing what he called “these divided times, in these anxious days,” he acknowledged that he probably had differences with the Democrats in the room but also with his own Republican Party “on spending, tariffs and my belief that America is the leader of the free world and must stand with Ukraine until the Russian invasion is repelled and a just and lasting peace is secured.”
Trump pressured Pence to reject election results from swing states where the Republican president falsely claimed the vote was marred by fraud. Pence refused, saying he lacked such authority. When a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, some chanted that they wanted to “hang Mike Pence.” Pence was whisked away by Secret Service agents, narrowly avoiding a confrontation with the rioters.
“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify,” Trump wrote at the time on X, formerly Twitter, as rioters moved through the Capitol and Pence was in hiding with his family, aides and security detail inside the building.

Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they try to storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images via AFP/File)

Pence rejected the Secret Service’s advice that he leave the Capitol, staying to continue the ceremonial election certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory once rioters were cleared.
In describing his role, Pence told the audience that “by God’s grace I did my duty that day to support the peaceful transfer of power under the Constitution of the United States of America.”
The Profile in Courage Award, named for a book Kennedy published in 1957 before he became president, honors public officials who take principled stands despite the potential political or personal consequences. Previous recipients of the award include former Presidents Barack Obama, George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford.
Pence has emerged as one of the few Republicans willing to take on the Trump administration.
His political action group, Advancing American Freedom, campaigned against the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the nation’s health agencies. He’s delivered speeches urging the president to stand with longtime foreign allies and posted an article he penned more than a decade ago on the limits of presidential power after Trump claimed that, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”


Trump, in a new interview, says he doesn’t know if he backs due process rights

Trump, in a new interview, says he doesn’t know if he backs due process rights
Updated 05 May 2025
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Trump, in a new interview, says he doesn’t know if he backs due process rights

Trump, in a new interview, says he doesn’t know if he backs due process rights
  • Says courts are getting in his way as he moves to deport “some of the worst, most dangerous people on Earth”
  • Thinks military action against Canada is ‘highly unlikely.’ As for Greenland, “something could happen”

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida: President Donald Trump is circumspect about his duties to uphold due process rights laid out in the Constitution, saying in a new interview that he does not know whether US citizens and noncitizens alike deserve that guarantee.
He also said he does not think military force will be needed to make Canada the “51st state” and played down the possibility he would look to run for a third term in the White House.
The comments in a wide-ranging, and at moments combative, interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” came as the Republican president’s efforts to quickly enact his agenda face sharper headwinds with Americans just as his second administration crossed the 100-day mark, according to a recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Trump, however, made clear that he is not backing away from a to-do list that he insists the American electorate broadly supported when they elected him in November.
Here are some of the highlights from the interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker that was taped Friday at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida and aired Sunday.
Trump doesn’t commit to due process
Critics on the left have tried to make the case that Trump is chipping away at due process in the United States. Most notably, they cite the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man who was living in Maryland when he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador and imprisoned without communication.
Trump says Abrego Garcia is part of a violent transnational gang. The Republican president has sought to turn deportation into a test case for his campaign against illegal immigration despite a Supreme Court order saying the administration must work to return Abrego Garcia to the US
Asked in the interview whether US citizens and noncitizens both deserve due process as laid out in the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, Trump was noncommittal.
“I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know,” Trump said when pressed by Welker.
The Fifth Amendment provides “due process of law,” meaning a person has certain rights when it comes to being prosecuted for a crime. Also, the 14th Amendment says no state can “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Trump said he has “brilliant lawyers ... and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said.”
He said he was pushing to deport “some of the worst, most dangerous people on Earth,” but that courts are getting in his way.
“I was elected to get them the hell out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it,” Trump said.
Military action against Canada is ‘highly unlikely’
The president has repeatedly threatened that he intends to make Canada the “51st state.”
Before his White House meeting on Tuesday with newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump is not backing away from the rhetoric that has angered Canadians.
Trump, however, told NBC that it was “highly unlikely” that the US would need to use military force to make Canada the 51st state.
He offered less certainty about whether his repeated calls for the US to take over Greenland from NATO-ally Denmark can be achieved without military action.
“Something could happen with Greenland,” Trump said. “I’ll be honest, we need that for national and international security. ... I don’t see it with Canada. I just don’t see it, I have to be honest with you.”
President bristles at recession forecasts
Trump said the US economy is in a “transition period” but he expects it to do “fantastically” despite the economic turmoil sparked by his tariffs.
He offered sharp pushback when Welker noted that some Wall Street analysts now say the chances of a recession are increasing.
“Well, you know, you say, some people on Wall Street say,” Trump said. “Well, I tell you something else. Some people on Wall Street say that we’re going to have the greatest economy in history.”
He also deflected blame for the 0.3 percent decline in the US economy in the first quarter. He said he was not responsible for it.
“I think the good parts are the Trump economy and the bad parts are the Biden economy because he’s done a terrible job,” referring to his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.
Trump doubled down on his recent comments at a Cabinet meeting that children might have to have two dolls instead of 30, denying that is an acknowledgment his tariffs will lead to supply shortages.
“I’m just saying they don’t need to have 30 dolls. They can have three. They don’t need to have 250 pencils. They can have five.”
Trump plays down third-term talk
The president has repeatedly suggested he could seek a third term in the White House even though the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution says that “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
Trump told NBC there is considerable support for him to run for a third term.
“But this is not something I’m looking to do,” Trump said. “I’m looking to have four great years and turn it over to somebody, ideally a great Republican, a great Republican to carry it forward.”
Trump’s previous comments about a third term sometimes seem more about provoking outrage on the political left. The Trump Organization is even selling red caps with the words “Trump 2028.”
But at moments, he has suggested he was seriously looking into a third term. In a late March phone interview with NBC, Trump said, “I’m not joking. There are methods which you could do it.”
So JD Vance in 2028? Marco Rubio? Not so fast.

Trump said in the interview that Vice President JD Vance is doing a “fantastic job” and is “brilliant.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whom Trump last week tasked to simultaneously serve as acting national security adviser, is “great,” the president said.
But Trump said it is “far too early” to begin talking about his potential successor.
He is confident that his “Make America Great Again” movement will flourish beyond his time in the White House.
“You look at Marco, you look at JD Vance, who’s fantastic,” Trump said. “You look at — I could name 10, 15, 20 people right now just sitting here. No, I think we have a tremendous party. And you know what I can’t name? I can’t name one Democrat.”
Hegseth is ‘totally safe’
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been under fire for his participation in Signal text chains in which sensitive information about military planning was shared. But Trump said he is not looking to replace his Pentagon chief.
“No. Not even a little bit. No. Pete’s going to be great,” Trump said. Hegseth’s job is “totally safe.”
The president also said his decision to nominate national security adviser Mike Waltz to be the US ambassador to the United Nations was not punishment for starting the chain to which Waltz inadvertently added a reporter.
“No. I just think he’ll do a nice job in the new position,” Trump said. He said his decision to have Rubio take over Waltz’s duties will likely be temporary.
“Marco’s very busy doing other things, so he’s not going to keep it long term. We’re going to put somebody else in,” Trump said, adding that it would nonetheless be possible to do both jobs indefinitely. “You know, there’s a theory. Henry Kissinger did both. There’s a theory that you don’t need two people. But I think I have some really great people that could do a good job.”
One person he said he is not considering for the post? Top policy aide Stephen Miller.
“Well, I’d love to have Stephen there, but that would be a downgrade,” he said. “Stephen is much higher on the totem pole than that, in my opinion.”
Trump insists he’s not profiting from the presidency, plans to donate his salary once again
Trump denied he is profiting from the presidency, even as he continues to promote a series of business ventures, including cryptocurrency holdings.
“I’m not profiting from anything. All I’m doing is, I started this long before the election. I want crypto. I think crypto’s important because if we don’t do it, China’s going to. And it’s new, it’s very popular, it’s very hot,” Trump said, adding that he hasn’t even “even looked” at how much he’s made from the venture.
Just days before taking office, Trump launched his own meme coin, which surged in value after it announced that top holders would be invited to an exclusive dinner at the president’s Washington-area golf club later this month and a tour of the White House. He also helped launch World Liberty Financial, another cryptocurrency venture, last year.
That’s in addition to a long list of other business ventures, from Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs his Truth Social site, to branded sneakers, watches and colognes and perfumes.
“Being president probably cost me money if you really look,” Trump said. “In fact, I do something that no other president has done, they think maybe George Washington has done.”
He added: “I contribute my entire salary to the government, back to the government. And I’m doing it again.”
Another TikTok deal extension
Trump said he is open to extending the deadline for a deal on TikTok once again.
“I’d like to see it done,” he said. “I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok. TikTok is — it’s very interesting, but it’ll be protected.
He later added: “If it needs an extension, I would be willing to give it an extension, might not need it.”
Last month, Trump used executive action to keep TikTok running in the US for another 75 days to give his administration more time to broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership.
White House officials had believed they were close to a deal in which the app’s operations would have been spun off into a new company based in the US and owned and operated by a majority of American investors. But Beijing hit the brakes after Trump slapped wide-ranging tariffs on nations across the globe.
“We actually have a deal. We have a group of purchasers, very substantial people. They’re going to pay a lot of money. It’s a good thing for us. It’s a good thing for China. It’s going to be, I think, very good,” he said. “But because of the fact that I’ve essentially cut off China right now with the tariffs that are so high that they’re not going to be able to do much business with the United States. But if we make a deal with China I’m sure that’ll be a subject, and it’ll be a very easy subject to solve.”