Washington DC - President Donald Trump claimed a deal over TikTok's US operations was close to being sealed ahead of a fast-approaching deadline that could see the platform banned again.

A 75-day pause on a ban mandated by law, which was put in place by Trump immediately after his inauguration, is set to expire on Saturday unless TikTok owner ByteDance sells to a US company, as demanded by the president.

"We have a lot of potential buyers," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. "There's tremendous interest in TikTok."

The social media mega-giant briefly went dark on January 19 after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Biden-era ban.

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Currently, the rumored frontrunner in potential takeover of TikTok is the Austin-based software company Oracle.

"The decision's gonna be my decision, as you know, through Congress," Trump told reporters, referring to the approval of a sale or potential ban.

"They've given me the power to take the decision – I'd like to see TikTok remain alive," he added.

Trump has previously refused to rule out extending the deadline and suggested last week that he might ease tariffs on China if Beijing agreed to a sale, but was quickly shut down by Chinese officials.