Former U.S. President Donald Trump has decided to give TikTok 75 more days to continue operating in the U.S. just before a ban was supposed to take effect this weekend.
He shared the news on his social media platform, Truth Social, saying he’s signing an executive order to keep TikTok running a little longer.
Earlier this week, Trump introduced new taxes on goods coming into the U.S., including a 34% tariff on Chinese imports. He said he might lower these tariffs if China agreed to a deal about TikTok. But instead of letting the ban go ahead, Trump delayed it again.
TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, hasn’t shown any real interest in selling the app or reducing its ownership, even though the U.S. law passed last year requires that. After Trump’s announcement, ByteDance released a statement saying they are still in talks with the U.S. government but haven’t reached any agreement yet. They also said that any deal would need to follow Chinese law.
Here’s what ByteDance said on TikTok’s website:
“ByteDance has been in discussion with the U.S. Government regarding a potential solution for TikTok U.S. An agreement has not been executed. There are key matters to be resolved. Any agreement will be subject to approval under Chinese law.”
Later that day, the Associated Press reported that the White House thought they were close to a deal earlier this week. But then the Chinese government said it wouldn’t approve the plan unless there were more talks about trade and tariffs.
Several companies have been mentioned as possible buyers or partners for TikTok, including Oracle, Blackstone, Frank McCourt, Amazon, Applovin, and Perplexity.
Earlier this year, when the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” became law just before Trump took office again, TikTok shut down its service for a day. Google, Apple, and others also removed TikTok and other ByteDance apps from their app stores, as required by the law.
After becoming president, Trump signed an order asking the Attorney General and the Justice Department not to enforce the law or punish any company for not following it. However, because the law is still active and the Supreme Court didn’t block it, TikTok stayed out of app stores for almost a month. It only returned after the Attorney General gave some assurance.
Right now, there’s still no final deal, and the law could still be enforced. So it’s a good idea to keep your TikTok app updated, just in case it disappears from app stores again.
Trump said:
“My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress. The Deal needs more time to get all the approvals, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for another 75 days. We hope to work in good faith with China, even though they are not happy with our tariffs. This shows how important tariffs are for fair trade and national security. We don’t want TikTok to go dark. We look forward to finalizing the Deal.”
