Trump Gives TikTok Yet Another Lifeline
As expected, President Donald Trump will extend TikTok’s sale deadline for the third time, giving the popular social media app yet another lengthy reprieve to comply with the law.
The initial TikTok sale-or-ban law, which passed with bipartisan support and was upheld against appeal in January by the United States Supreme Court, states that Chinese TikTok parent company, ByteDance, must sell TikTok or else it will be taken offline in the United States. The app briefly went offline on January 19 before Trump gave Bytedance assurances that it would not be prosecuted under the new law if it brought the app back online.
President Trump himself initiated the idea of banning TikTok in 2020 during his first term as President but has since reversed course on the matter after he used the app to get reelected.
“President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said this week, Reuters reports. Leavitt added that the Trump administration will spend the next 90 days working to finalize a TikTok sale so that the app will comply with the law.
When asked yesterday about extending the TikTok ban aboard Air Force One, Trump said he would “probably” extend the deadline.
“Probably have to get China approval but I think we’ll get it,” he continued. “I think President Xi will ultimately approve it.”
The law required TikTok to stop operating by January 19, 2025, if ByteDance did not divest its U.S. assets. However, that has not yet occurred, and President Trump has repeatedly delayed action. The first extension took effect shortly after he was inaugurated on January 20, and a second extension was implemented to postpone the ban until June 19. Trump has also tried to leverage a TikTok deal as part of ongoing trade negotiations with China.
Democratic lawmakers do not believe Trump has the legal authority to continue delaying the TikTok ban that Congress enacted with bipartisan support.
When the expected Executive Order is signed this week, ByteDance will have until mid-September to comply with the law, assuming a fourth extension isn’t put into effect by then.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
