Trump punts on TikTok deal — app gets another 75 days

President Donald Trump granted TikTok another 75-day reprieve on Friday, further prolonging the Washington drama over the ultra-popular video app owned by a Beijing-based company.

In a post on Truth Social, the president said his administration “has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress,” but that he planned to sign an executive order giving a deal more time to come together.

He added that his administration would work with China to close the deal.

“We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark,’” Trump wrote.

The president offered no clues as to which U.S. companies or investors could be part of a TikTok deal.

But Trump’s tariff policy may have derailed an existing deal, according to two people close to the negotiations, granted anonymity to speak candidly.

The White House had finalized a deal by Wednesday, they said, and President Donald Trump was planning to sign an executive order to approve that deal and initiate a 120-day closing period.

The plan was to convert TikTok’s operations in the United States into a new, U.S.-based company owned and operated by a majority of American investors, with ByteDance maintaining a minority position, the people said.

But on Thursday, the morning after the president raised tariffs on China another 34 percent as part of his sprawling reciprocal trade announcement, ByteDance representatives called the White House. Beijing, they said, would no longer approve the deal until there could be wider negotiations about trade and tariffs.

In a rare public statement following Trump’s announcement, ByteDance acknowledged that it has been in talks with Washington over a “potential solution” to the TikTok ban, but that an agreement “has not been executed” and “there are key matters to be resolved.”

It also said any agreement “will be subject to approval under Chinese law.”

Trump recently suggested tariffs could be used as leverage to get Beijing to agree to a deal, and in his post, Trump invoked the tariffs he levied against China earlier this week, calling them “the most powerful Economic tool, and very important to our National Security!”

The Chinese government has imposed export controls on TikTok’s algorithm, and would need to approve any deal between TikTok and U.S. companies.

Software giant Oracle, which already has a data-sharing arrangement with TikTok, was in advanced talks with the White House last month for a deal that would likely see TikTok’s parent company ByteDance retain some control over the app’s algorithm. While such a deal likely defies the law, neither Congress nor other stakeholders would be well-positioned to challenge it.

Other potential bidders reportedly include Amazon, Walmart and the investment firm Blackrock.

Washington has long worried that TikTok, via its ties to ByteDance, acts as a Trojan horse for the Chinese government. Given the app’s tremendous popularity — the company claims more than 170 million Americans use it each month — officials in both parties fear Beijing could use TikTok to push propaganda and spy on Americans.

The president’s announcement came one day before his self-imposed April 5 deadline for a TikTok deal. While a law went into effect on Jan. 19 requiring TikTok to cut ties with its Beijing-based parent firm or be banned, the president signed an executive order on his first day in office pushing back its enforcement by 75 days.

Congress passed a law last year requiring ByteDance to give up control of TikTok’s algorithm and divest most of its financial stake in the app due to concerns about the Chinese government’s influence over the company.

But Trump — who attempted to ban TikTok in 2020, during his last presidential term — bucked the Washington consensus and came out against the TikTok ban bill last spring. He told a conservative influencer last summer that he would “never ban TikTok.” Trump even credited TikTok for helping him win last year’s election, claiming the app helped his campaign make inroads with younger voters.

TikTok worked to curry favor with Trump ahead of the original Jan. 19 deadline, including by sponsoring one of his inauguration parties. After a brief dark period just before Trump took office, the app sent a message to its users crediting the incoming president for its revival. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was given a prominent seat at the president’s inauguration ceremony.

The White House projected confidence up to the last minute that a TikTok deal would get done ahead of Saturday. Vice President JD Vance told Fox News Thursday that talks were “in a good place” and that a deal “will come out before the deadline.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Friday that he knew an extension was “probably coming.” He added it was “probably OK” as long as the administration can find “the right buyer and the right deal.”

Republican lawmakers on the House China Committee struck a more cautious tone. In a joint statement led by committee Chair John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), they said any TikTok deal “must ensure that U.S. law is followed, and that the Chinese Communist Party does not have access to American user data or the ability to manipulate the content consumed by Americans.”

They added they “stand firm in our position and look forward to more details from the Administration to ensure that any deal aligns with national security and U.S. law.”

Some Democratic lawmakers said Trump’s TikTok punt is meant to distract Americans from the chaos around tariffs.

“All he did is extend the 75 days,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters. “He didn’t make a decision one way or the other, but he knows the American people are so hostile to what he is doing that he always looks for a diversion. Sometimes it’s Greenland, sometimes it’s the Gulf of Mexico. The diversion today was TikTok.”

Anthony Adragna, Jordain Carney and Myah Ward contributed to this report.