The Trump Administration will get $10 billion in commissions for brokering the TikTok deal

The administration of President Donald Trump will receive approximately $10 billion in fees for its role in the deal that allowed TikTok's U.S. operations to be reorganized, The Wall Street Journal reported in an exclusive report.

The payment, considered unprecedented by historians, is part of the deal where a group of investors close to the White House took control of the U.S. business of the popular Reels (short vertical videos) app, originally owned by Chinese company ByteDance.

The deal allowed the platform to continue operating in the United States amid serious national security concerns expressed by dozens of U.S. lawmakers from both parties. Congress, in fact, passed a bill requiring ByteDance to sell its stake in TikTok to a U.S. owner or face a possible ban in the country.

According to the WSJ report, the investors who acquired TikTok—including tech company Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi investment fund MGX - agreed to make several commission payments to the Trump administration that together will total $10 billion.

A first part of the payment, close to $2.5 billion, was already transferred to the Treasury Department when the deal closed in January. The remainder will be delivered in additional disbursements until the total figure is complete, according to sources cited by the newspaper.

The Trump administration, according to the report, defended the commission by arguing that the federal government played a key role in bringing the deal to fruition. Officials said the negotiations included talks with China and addressing concerns from U.S. lawmakers about security risks related to the collection of user data.

Vice President JD Vance previously stated that the new company tasked with operating TikTok in the United States would be valued at about $14 billion within the transaction, although some technology industry analysts believe that valuation could significantly understate the platform's true value.

As part of the deal, the new U.S. entity will share profits with ByteDance, which retains about a 20% stake in the company and licensed its algorithm to the new operation for continued operation in the U.S. market.

According to historians quoted by The Wall Street Journal, a government commission of this magnitude would be unprecedented in corporate transactions. In most large corporate deals, financial advisory fees typically represent less than 1% of the total deal value.

The case also reflects a recent trend of the Trump Administration getting directly involved in negotiations with large corporations. In other recent deals,the White House has obtained stakes or financial concessions in strategic companies in the technology sector and industryl.

The commission tied to the TikTok deal represents one of the most prominent examples of this strategy, turning government mediation into a direct source of government revenue tied neatly to a private business operation.