Shortly after Monday’s inauguration ceremony, President Donald Trump signed an executive order extending ByteDance’s deadline to sell TikTok’s US operations, preventing the app from going dark for an additional 75 days.
The executive order instructs the US attorney general to refrain from implementing legislation that would ban the app and require companies like Apple and Google to remove it from their app stores. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Days before the Jan. 19 deadline, Trump suggested he would “rescue” the app once he formally takes office. In an interview with Kristen Welker on NBC News on SaturdayTrump said he would give ByteDance more time to find a buyer, but did not explain how he planned to do that. “We have to look at it carefully. It is a very big situation,” he said.
In a Truth Social post on SundayTrump confirmed that the extension would be done through an executive order that would allow his administration to negotiate a deal with ByteDance. In his post, Trump said he would pursue a 50 percent joint venture agreement with ByteDance, preferably with a US entity.
“By doing this, we’re saving TikTok, keeping it in good hands and letting it do that [stay] up,” Trump wrote. “Without US approval, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it’s worth hundreds of billions of dollars—perhaps trillions.”
ByteDance and TikTok have yet to publicly respond to Trump’s proposal. At Monday’s signing ceremony, Trump said he thought TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew would “really like that.” Trump said private companies could be involved in financing the negotiations. “I think you have a lot of people who will be interested in TikTok with the United States as a partner,” he said.
The executive order itself does not mention asset forfeiture, but instead says the 75-day delay is for “an opportunity to determine an appropriate way forward in an orderly manner.”
The rush to keep TikTok online came after the company suffered a devastating blow from US Supreme Court. On Friday, a court upheld a law forcing TikTok to sell to its American owner to prevent a nationwide ban. The decision was made just two days before the law came into force.
Just before midnight on Saturday, TikTok users were notified that the app was no longer available to US users as a result of the sell-or-ban law. Around the same time that Apple and Google removed the app from their respective app stores, other ByteDance-owned apps, including CapCut, Lemon8 and Marvel Snap, were also removed. TikTok was down for about 15 hours before the company issued a statement announcing it would be back.
“In consultation with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will not face any penalties for providing TikTok to more than 170 million Americans and enabling more than 7 million small businesses to thrive,” the company said. Sunday evening.
The law on confiscation of property was met with opposition from both sides. “I’m holding meetings in Washington DC trying to get the ban on TikTok lifted,” wrote Soulja Boy, d post on X over the weekend. The rapper was in town to perform at the crypto industry’s inaugural party.
Various American financiers considering purchasing the appincluding former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and former Trump Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. McCourt’s Freedom Project made an official offer after the Supreme Court announced its decision. Elon Musk’s name has also been mentioned in talks about a deal with the Chinese government, according to Bloomberg.
Trump suggested on Monday that he may impose retaliatory tariffs against China if the Chinese government refuses to negotiate a deal that would address the US government’s national security concerns with TikTok. “I’m not saying I would, but you sure could,” he said.