Husted joined the Senate this week in the seat previously held by Vice President JD Vance after the chamber voted to enact the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The law was meant to pressure China-based ByteDance to sell TikTok for the social media platform to be hosted by app stores in the United States. However, as their divestiture deadline of Jan. 19 came and went, President Donald Trump reinstated the app’s operations.

“I can tell you that in our household, my wife Tina and I, we banned TikTok a long time ago. The situation right now these companies are subject to fines under the law. Perhaps President Trump can come in and negotiate a sale that would lead to American ownership of TikTok,” Husted said on Fox News’s America’s Newsroom Wednesday. “As long as it is owned by the Chinese communist party, essentially, I’m not in favor of it.”

Husted would not say whether he was in favor of allowing ByteDance 75 days to negotiate with the president. Currently, it remains banned from U.S. app stores, but users who kept the app on their phones before Jan. 19 still have access to the platform.

“The law is in place. The companies will have to comply with the law. I think the president really is just trying to buy some time in terms of enforcement of the law until he can perhaps negotiate a sale that will allow people who use TikTok to continue their businesses and their activities,” Husted said.

YouTuber Mr. Beast and X owner Elon Musk have both teased buying TikTok themselves. TikTok hasn’t pursued divestiture and opted instead to challenge the ban legally. Instead, spokesman Michael Hughes referred to the speculation as “pure fiction.”

“We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction,” Hughes said in a comment to the Washington Examiner.

Trump has long toted a “good experience” with TikTok since joining the platform during his campaign. Less than a week after joining, Trump promised he “will never ban TikTok.” Since then, the president has garnered over 14 million followers.