Reid Rasner, a Wyoming businessman, said the Trump administration is taking his offer to buy TikTok “very seriously.”

Rasner discussed the bid, for $47.45 billion, during an interview with NBC News anchor Savannah Sellers, who asked him whether the administration has reviewed the offer.

“Absolutely. They 100% — they, they have our bid, they have our letter of engagement, and we’re prepared to move forward,” Rasner said Thursday. “They know it, and I think they’re taking it very seriously, from what it sounds like.”

Rasner noted, however, the negotiations are complex.

“We have a lot of things going on. We’re in communication with ByteDance, you’ve got communist China, you’ve got the administration and American interests,” he said. Rasner, reportedly a billionaire, is CEO and founder of Omnivest Financial, according to the company’s website.

ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, has until April 5 to divest from the platform under a law passed last year. If it doesn’t, the app can essentially stop operating.

TikTok was briefly shut down in January after missing a deadline set by the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act that makes it illegal for an entity to maintain an app within the U.S. if it’s controlled by an “adversary” like ByteDance.

On Inauguration Day, President Donald Trump issued a 75-day delay for the law’s enforcement to determine the “appropriate course forward.”

“I intend to consult with my advisers, including the heads of relevant departments and agencies on the national security concerns posed by TikTok, and to pursue a resolution that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans,” Trump said in an executive order.

After the enactment of the law, ByteDance said it did not have any plans to sell TikTok. And China’s government, which some American lawmakers have accused of having influence over ByteDance, reportedly said in March 2024 the U.S. was trying to suppress the platform.

“This kind of bullying behavior that cannot win in fair competition disrupts companies’ normal business activity, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and damages the normal international economic and trade order,” the BBC quoted Wang Wenbin, who at the time served as a spokesperson for China’s foreign affairs ministry, as saying.

“In the end, this will inevitably come back to bite the United States itself,” Wenbin predicted.

Have questions, concerns or tips? Send them to Ray at rjlewis@sbgtv.com.