TikTok's US fate reportedly rests on a brawl between two senior White House advisers

Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images/Reuters

• The confused messages from the Trump administration about the fate of ByteDance-owned TikTok may stem from a disagreement between two senior White House advisers.
• According to The Washington Post, trade adviser Peter Navarro pushed for an outright ban of TikTok, while Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin wanted a sale.
• The pair ended up in a "shouting match" in front of President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in late July, according to the report.
• President Trump has told TikTok, whose parent company is Chinese, that it must sell its US business to an American tech firm or investors, or face a ban from mid-September.
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Donald Trump's top advisers reportedly can't agree on what should happen to TikTok, whose fate in the US currently hangs in the balance.

According to a Washington Post report, citing anonymous witnesses, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and trade adviser Peter Navarro had a "shouting match" in front of President Trump in the Oval Office in late July over the short video app's future.See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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• Microsoft could be "a great steward" of TikTok's US assets if reported sale talks succeed, says Josh Elman, an investor in the app's predecessor Musical.ly
• Inside the rise of TikTok, the viral video-sharing app wildly popular with teens and loathed by the Trump administration
• Trump just issued 2 executive orders aimed at Chinese-owned apps, barring US companies from doing business with TikTok parent company ByteDance and messaging app WeChat