What just happened? TikTok is receiving yet another reprieve from Donald Trump. For the third time since taking office, the president is extending the sales deadline this week, giving the company another 90 days to divest its US business from Chinese parent ByteDance.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Trump will sign an executive order this week that will "keep TikTok up and running" for another 90 days.
Leavitt added that the administration will spend the extra time working to ensure a deal can be reached so those in American can continue to use TikTok "with the assurance that their data is safe and secure."
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act was passed at the start of 2025, defining TikTok as being a threat to national security and controlled by a foreign adversary – China, in this case. The bill gave TikTok a deadline of January 20 to sell its US operations or be banned in the US.
In one of his first acts after taking office, Trump signed an executive order delaying the ban for 75 days to April 5. He handed the app another 75-day extension a day before that date, pushing the deadline to June 19.
In May, Trump said he was willing to give TikTok another extension, allowing more time for the sale of its US operations.
Trump's opinion of TikTok has completely changed since his first term as president, when he attempted to ban it. He's admitted that he has a "warm spot" in his heart for the app because it helped him win the youth vote in last year's elections.
"I have a little sweet spot in my heart because, as you know, I won young people by 36 points," Trump said in May. "No Republican ever won young people, and I won it by 36 points, and I focused on TikTok. So perhaps I shouldn't say this, but I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok," he added.
There's still the question of which company would want to buy TikTok's US operations and has the resources to do so. It was reported in April that a consortium of firms led by Oracle had come close to reaching a deal with ByteDance, but it fell apart due to tensions over Trump's tariffs. Amazon had also made an 11th-hour offer to purchase the company, and there were bids from mobile app platform AppLovin and a company co-founded by OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely.
TikTok gets third extension from Trump as US sale deadline looms
