Mr Trump said he will take action as soon as Saturday to ban TikTok, a popular Chinese-owned video app. The app has been a source of national security and censorship concerns with fears Chinese officials have been using it to spy on users.

Mr Trump’s comments came after published reports that the administration is planning to order China’s ByteDance to sell TikTok.

There were also reports Friday that software giant Microsoft is in talks to buy the app.

Mr Trump has now said night that he will ban the popular short-form video app TikTok from operating in the United States.

“As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” Trump said to reporters while aboard Air Force One.

Trump said he could use emergency economic powers or an executive order.

It was not immediately clear what such an order would look like.

“Well, I have that authority,” he said.

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