Shortly after Monday’s inauguration ceremony, President Donald Trump signed an executive order extending the deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations, preventing the app from being taken down for another 75 days.
The executive order directs the U.S. attorney general to refrain from enforcing the law, which would ban the app and require companies like Apple and Google to remove it from their app stores. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Days before the Jan. 19 deadline, Trump indicated he would “save” the app once he officially took office. In an interview with Kristen Welker on NBC News on SaturdayTrump said he would give ByteDance more time to find a buyer, but did not explain how he planned to do so. “We have to look at this carefully. “It’s a very big situation,” he said.
In a Truth Social post on SundayTrump confirmed the extension would come via an executive order that would allow his administration to negotiate a deal with ByteDance. In his post, Trump said he would seek a 50 percent joint venture agreement with ByteDance, preferably with a U.S. company.
“This is how we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay alive,” Trump wrote. “There is no TikTok without US approval. With our approval, it’s worth hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions.”
ByteDance and TikTok have not yet publicly responded to Trump’s proposal. At Monday’s signing ceremony, Trump said he thought TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew would “really like it.” Trump said private companies could be involved in financing the negotiations. “I think there are a lot of people who will be interested in TikTok with the US as a partner,” he said.
The executive order itself does not mention the divestment, but rather states that the 75-day period “serves as an opportunity to determine in an orderly manner the right path forward.”
The rush to keep TikTok online came after the company suffered a devastating blow at the hands US Supreme Court. On Friday, the court upheld a law forcing the sale of TikTok to an American owner to avert a nationwide ban. The decision came just two days before the law came into force.
Shortly before midnight on Saturday, TikTok users received a notification that the app was no longer available to US users due to the sell-or-ban law. Around the same time that Apple and Google removed the app from their app stores, other ByteDance-owned apps, including CapCut, Lemon8 and Marvel Snap, were also removed. TikTok was down for about 15 hours before the company issued a statement announcing its return.
“In consultation with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. “We thank President Trump for providing our service providers with the clarity and assurance they need that they will not face penalties for sharing TikTok with over 170 million Americans and enabling over 7 million small businesses to thrive,” the company said Sunday Evening.
The divestment law was met with resentment on both sides. “We are meeting in Washington DC to get this TikTok ban lifted,” Soulja Boy wrote in one Post on X this weekend. The rap artist was in town to perform at a crypto industry housewarming party.
A variety of American financiers I was thinking about purchasing the appincluding former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and former Trump Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. McCourt’s Project Freedom made a formal offer after the Supreme Court announced its decision. Elon Musk’s name has also been mentioned in talks about a deal with the Chinese government. according to Bloomberg.
On Monday, Trump hinted that he could impose retaliatory tariffs against China if the Chinese government refuses to negotiate a deal with TikTok to address the U.S. government’s national security concerns. “I’m not saying I would do it, but you definitely could,” he said.
