Trump extends TikTok deal deadline by 75 days, touts 'tremendous progress'
Source: NBC News
Apr. 4, 2025, 1:34 PM EDT
President Donald Trump on Friday said that he will extend the deadline for TikTok's owner to find a non-Chinese buyer by 75 days, averting what could have been another disruption to the app.
ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, must find a non-Chinese buyer for the app or else it will be banned under a law passed in 2024. Trump had previously delayed the app’s ban via executive order on his first day in office, effectively giving ByteDance until April 5 — Saturday — to comply with the law.
"My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress," he wrote in a TruthSocial post. "The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days."
ByteDance, which previously said it did not plan to sell TikTok, has remained silent about whether it was in talks with bidders and has not publicly confirmed it would divest at all. NBC News has reached out to TikTok for comment.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-tiktok-ban-extension-rcna199394
I haven't yet dug into the details of the law but I was under the impression there was the option of a ( "a" as in "one" ) 90-day extension if something was being worked on. Yet suddenly there was an E.O. for 75 days and now magically another one for 75-days, which seems to be (as usual) skirting the law.
I found a USA Today article that waits until the end of their article to mention this - https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2025/04/04/tiktok-getting-banned-again-when/82863145007/
Can Trump extend the TikTok deadline again?
Under the federal legislation that put the ban in place, the president can implement a 90-day extension on the deadline to sell. However, Trump didn't take this route in January; instead, he signed an executive order delaying the ban by 75 days.
If Trump wishes to sign another executive order before the April 5 deadline, he can.
Senators urge Trump to work with Congress to save TikTok
On March 24, three Democratic senators sent a letter to Trump, asking the president to work with Congress on "any potential resolutions to the TikTok ban." "To the extent that you continue trying to delay the divestment deadline through executive orders, any further extensions of the TikTok deadline will require Oracle, Apple, Google and other companies to continue risking ruinous legal liability," it states.
The letter, signed by Massachusetts Sen. Edward J. Markey, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen and New Jersey Sen. Cory A. Booker, asks Trump to urge Republican senators to approve the Extend the TikTok Deadline Act. Introduced in January just days before the initial ban, the act, if passed, would extend the TikTok sale deadline to Oct. 16, 2025.
(snip)
Link to LETTER (PDF) mentioned in the above USA Today article - https://www.markey.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_to_trump_on_tiktok_deadline.pdf
Article updated.
Original article -
President Donald Trump on Friday said he will extend the deadline for TikTok to find a U.S. buyer or face a ban, giving the China-based owner ByteDance an additional 75 days to reach a deal.
"My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress," he wrote in a TruthSocial post. "The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days."
Trump had previously delayed the app's ban via executive order on his first day in office, effectively giving TikTok's China-based owner ByteDance until April 5 -- Saturday -- to comply with the law. ByteDance, which previously said it did not plan to sell TikTok, has remained silent about whether it was in talks with bidders and has not publicly confirmed it would divest at all.
TikTok's future in the United States has been in limbo ever since former President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan legislation last year, with lawmakers citing national security concerns over the possibility of China accessing American users' data.
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