Trump signs executive order extending the deadline for TikTok’s sale or divestment from Chinese parent company ByteDance to September 17.
United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order extending the deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest its US assets of the short-form video app TikTok by another 90 days, he says, despite a law that mandated a sale or shutdown.
“I’ve just signed the Executive Order extending the Deadline for the TikTok closing for 90 days (September 17, 2025),” the president said in a post on Thursday on his social media platform, Truth Social.
The ban would have otherwise kicked in on Thursday.
“We are grateful for President Trump’s leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users and 7.5 million US businesses that rely on the platform as we continue to work with Vice President (JD) Vance’s Office,” TikTok said in a statement.
Vance’s office has been involved in negotiations with the platform.
Passed in April 2024 and known as the the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, the law required TikTok to stop operating in the US by January 19 unless ByteDance had completed divesting itself of the app’s US assets or demonstrated significant progress towards a sale.
The law was challenged in the Supreme Court in January, but the nation’s highest court upheld the ban.
Third extension
This is the third time the president has extended the deadline. Trump began his second term as president on January 20 and opted not to enforce the law. He first extended the deadline to early April and then again last month to June 19.
Democratic senators argued that Trump has no legal authority to extend the deadline and suggested a deal under consideration would not meet legal requirements.
The White House on Tuesday said the app will be “mandated a sale or shutdown absent significant progress”.
“President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday.
She added that the administration will spend the next three months making sure the sale closes so Americans can keep using TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure.
In March, Trump said he would be willing to reduce tariffs on China to get a deal done with ByteDance to sell the app.
A deal had been in the works this spring that would spin off TikTok’s US operations into a new US-based firm majority-owned and operated by US investors. That was put on hold after China said it would not approve that deal because of the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
TikTok has a wide US user base, especially among younger audiences. According to a survey from Pew Research conducted in December, a third of all US adults use TikTok, and among the under 30 demographic, it is higher at 59 percent while 67 percent of teens use the platform.
