President Trump is poised to extend the TikTok ban deadline – for the third time – as the White House and China prepare to hold trade talks, On The Money has learned.
The previous extension to the law — which forces TikTok’s Chinese parent company Bytedance to sell the popular video-sharing app in the US — expires June 19, but the two nations are expected to begin hashing out their feud over tariffs this week.
“The president has said he’s willing to (announce another extension) if it has to happen,” a government official familiar with the president’s thinking told On The Money on Tuesday.
The Chinese “just want to hold this up as leverage in the trade talks,” the official added.
A Wall Street banker involved in the deal to sell the app to US investors said Trump could be persuaded to let TikTok “go dark” and disappear from app stores on June 19 if he believes it will give him a strategic advantage in the complex and at times acrimonious trade deal negotiations with the Chinese.
A White House spokesman didn’t return a call for comment.
TikTok, while wildly popular, has been criticized for allegedly siphoning US data as part of a Chinese government effort to spy on US citizens.
The company has denied the charges.
Nonetheless, the Biden administration signed the divest-or-ban law, which was slated to go into effect on Jan. 19 – the day before Trump’s inauguration.
Trump promptly signed an executive order pushing back the ban by 90 days and announced a second extension in early April just as a group of US investors were about to create a framework that would allow TikTok to be controlled by a majority-US company, with a minority stake being held by Beijing-based ByteDance.
The consortium of private sector players, if the deal is completed, will be led by tech giant Oracle, founded by Trump friend and supporter Larry Ellison, as On The Money previously reported.
The deal went sideways as Trump launched his “Liberation Day” tariff trade war with particularly tough sanctions against China — a 145% rate, which was reduced to 30% last month as both sides began talks for a final deal, as On The Money first reported.
Trump, once a staunch TikTok critic who sought its ban back during his first term, has since become a convert. He believes the app, popular with younger Americans, helped get him elected in 2024.
