President Donald Trump has extended the deadline for the TikTok ban by 75 days. Trump shared a post on Truth Social on Friday stating that he is signing an executive order to allow for more time to finalize a deal. The announcement comes just one day before the ban was set to go into effect.
“My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress,” Trump wrote. “The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days.”
Today’s announcement marks the second time that Trump has extended the deadline for the TikTok ban. ByteDance’s original deadline to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations was January 19, according to a law signed last year by former President Joe Biden. However, Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to give the company 75 more days make a deal.
Prior to the signing of the executive order, TikTok was briefly taken offline and removed from the Apple and Google app stores before eventually being restored.
Bloomberg reports that Trump reviewed a proposal from a group of U.S. investors including, Oracle, Blackstone, and Andreessen Horowitz on Wednesday. The proposal is reportedly considered a top contender for a potential deal. Other interested parties include Amazon, Perplexity, billionaire Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty consortium, Walmart, AppLovin, and more.
It’s worth noting that the Chinese government would need to approve any deal before it can be finalized. In addition, ByteDance has not shown any interest in selling TikTok or reducing its stake in the social network as is required by the TikTok ban law.
The move comes a few days after Trump announced sweeping tariffs, in which he imposed a 34% tariff rate on China. Trump has previously stated that he may reduce tariffs on China to facilitate a TikTok deal.
In his post announcing the extension of the TikTok ban deadline, Trump stated: “We hope to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs (Necessary for Fair and Balanced Trade between China and the U.S.A.!). This proves that Tariffs are the most powerful Economic tool, and very important to our National Security! We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark.’ We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
In retaliation to the tariffs, China said on Friday that it will impose a 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products.
