Trump said TikTok would be “protected” and he would continue to extend the deadline to prevent the app from being banned. Trump told NBC, “I have a little sweet spot in my heart” for the app. There are legal questions as to whether Trump has the authority to continue extending the ban.
TikTok, as it stands now, will be banned on June 19, but President Donald Trump says he has no plans to enforce the ban and will continue to extend the deadline for as long as it takes for a deal to come together.
“Perhaps I shouldn’t say this, but I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said Sunday in a pretaped interview with Meet the Press host Kristen Welker. “I have a little sweet spot in my heart because I won young people by 36 points…and I focused on TikTok.”
Trump has already granted two reprieves from the TikTok ban being enforced. That ban was originally scheduled to take place in January. Now, Trump says, the app “will be protected.”
Trump is hoping to oversee a deal that would spin off the social media’s operations to a U.S.-based firm, instead of China’s ByteDance. China, however, has said it will not approve any deal, most recently because of tariffs placed on that country, but the government was resistant to one long before those came into play.
Critics of the app say TikTok opens U.S. users up to surveillance by China and worry about the mental-health impact of the app on children. ByteDance and Trump have downplayed the risk of the app, which is used by 170 million Americans.
The language of the TikTok ban gave Trump the power to extend the deadline by 90 days if there has been “significant progress toward a sale.” There is no language about additional extensions.
Trump technically does not have the power to stop the ban. To do so would require an act of Congress. The ban was passed with wide bipartisan support in April 2024.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
