Photo Credit: Johnathan Kemper
President Trump has stated he will extend the TikTok sale deadline for a third time if a deal is not struck by the mid-June deadline. It’s unclear if any negotiations with ByteDance will be successful—especially since there’s seemingly no pressure to get a deal done by any deadline.
The deadline for Chinese company ByteDance to divest from the platform is now June 19 after being extended twice. The ban was originally supposed to be effective January 19 after being signed into law by former President Biden. But the law also contains a provision that allows the deal to be extended if negotiations are being made in good faith.
The first 75-day extension allowed the platform to continue to operate from January 19 to April 5. Throughout that three-month period, several Trump officials—including Vice President JD Vance—assured the public that a deal was being worked on behind the scenes. When the April 5 deadline approached, President Trump issued another 75-day extension from April 5 to June 19. Now Trump has signaled he’s willing to kick this can further down the road.
In an interview with ‘Meet the Press with Kristen Welker,’ Trump admitted he has a sweet spot for the app after it was crucial in winning young voters to his side. “TikTok is very interesting, but it will be protected,” Trump told Welker during that interview.
A deal was in the works to spin off TikTok’s U.S. operations into a new firm based in the United States and majority-owned by U.S. investors. However, China has indicated it would not approve any deal following Trump’s steep tariffs on Chinese goods. A source close to ByteDance’s U.S. investors said the prospective deal work continues behind the scenes, but that the tariff dispute between the U.S. and Beijing would need to be resolved first.
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