WASHINGTON, D.C. – TikTok will continue operating in the United States for at least three more months after President Donald Trump announced plans to extend the sale-or-ban deadline for the popular video-sharing app — marking the third delay since he took office earlier this year.
“President Trump will sign an additional Executive Order this week to keep TikTok up and running,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday.
The app, which boasts over 170 million American users, had faced a looming ban after its Chinese parent company ByteDance failed to divest its U.S. operations by a January deadline.
The White House says the new 90-day extension is necessary to finalize a deal that ensures Americans’ data remains protected from foreign surveillance.
“We’ll probably have to get China approval,” Trump told the BBC. “I think we’ll get it. I think President Xi will ultimately approve it.”
Trump Bucks Congress and Supreme Court
Trump’s decision to extend the deadline comes despite bipartisan support in Congress for a ban or forced sale of TikTok over national security concerns.
Lawmakers had passed legislation requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok to a U.S. entity — a law signed by former President Joe Biden and later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The move has stirred criticism from some legal experts and lawmakers who question the president’s authority to unilaterally override a law already ruled constitutional.
Nevertheless, the Trump administration appears determined to keep TikTok online for now.
The platform briefly went offline ahead of Trump’s January inauguration, but service was restored hours later — prompting TikTok to publicly thank the president.
Analysts: Ban Threat Losing Credibility
Many tech analysts now believe the threat of a ban has lost all momentum.
“For all intents and purposes, there is no TikTok ban,” said Kelsey Chickering, principal analyst at Forrester. “Smaller players like Snap might try to grab market share during this ‘uncertain time,’ but TikTok isn’t acting like it’s uncertain at all — they just rolled out new AI video tools at Cannes.”
Trump’s own view on TikTok appears to have evolved. Despite trying to force a sale during his first term in 2020, he praised the platform in December 2024, claiming it helped him connect with young voters during the presidential campaign.
“I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points,” he said — although most young voters reportedly backed Democratic challenger Kamala Harris.
Sale Talks Still Ongoing
Efforts to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to an American firm are ongoing but have yet to yield a concrete deal.
In April, the Trump administration said a deal was close that would see majority U.S. ownership, but ByteDance later said “key matters” remained unresolved and that any agreement would need approval under Chinese law.
Several high-profile bidders remain in the running. These include Oracle, whose co-founder Larry Ellison is a close Trump ally, as well as separate investor groups involving billionaire Frank McCourt, entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and even YouTube megastar MrBeast.
