Trump Willing to Reset Clock On TikTok Deal

In April 2024, then-President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which required TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest its U.S. operations by January 19, 2025, or face a nationwide ban. The law was driven by bipartisan concerns that ByteDance’s ties to the Chinese government could allow access to American user data or enable manipulation through TikTok’s algorithm, posing a national security threat.

Supreme Court Ruling: TikTok challenged the law, arguing it violated First Amendment rights, but the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the legislation in January 2025, confirming the ban would take effect unless ByteDance divested.

TikTok has over 170 million U.S. users, making it a significant cultural and economic platform. It went offline briefly for about 14 hours on January 18, 2025, when hosting services and app stores complied with the law, but service was restored after President Trump intervened.

On his first day in office (January 20, 2025), President Trump signed an executive order delaying the ban by 75 days, pushing the deadline to April 5, 2025. This move also provided legal immunity to tech companies (e.g., Apple, Google, Oracle) hosting TikTok, allowing the app to remain accessible.

Second Extension: On April 4, 2025, with the April 5 deadline looming, Trump signed another executive order extending the deadline by an additional 75 days, setting a new deadline of June 19, 2025. He stated, “My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress,” emphasizing the need for more time to secure approvals.

In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press last week, Trump expressed willingness to extend the June 19 deadline again if no deal is reached, saying, “I would ... I’d like to see it done,” and noting TikTok’s role in helping him win young voters in the 2024 election. He emphasized that “TikTok is - it’s very interesting, but it will be protected.”

Trump’s administration, led by Vice President JD Vance, has been actively brokering a deal to transfer TikTok’s U.S. operations to American ownership, potentially involving investors like Oracle, Blackstone, Andreessen Horowitz, or even Amazon. A proposed deal would see ByteDance retain no more than a 20% stake in a new U.S.-based TikTok entity, with no coordination on algorithms or data sharing.

Tariff Complications: A deal was reportedly close to finalization in early April 2025, but Trump’s announcement of a 34% tariff on Chinese imports (raising the total to 54%) derailed it. ByteDance informed the White House that China would not approve the sale unless tariff negotiations occurred, prompting the second extension.