Trump Extends Deadline for US TikTok Sale to September

Donald Trump presented ByteDance and thus TikTok with a reprieve; the deadline for the divestiture of TikTok’s U.S. assets was extended to September 17. The move comes despite a law demanding that the sale of the TikTok app or its shutdown needs to be completed as steadily moving slowly into execution or that operations have now been halted.

Trump signed an executive order pushing back Thursday’s deadline for 90 days, a step he had previously signaled.

A pair of bipartisan presidential administrations dodged the TikTok showdown by kicking the federal mandate down the road. The law demanded TikTok to sell itself or to shut down operations in the US. The deadline for that sale or closure was originally set for January. Now there is no sale on the horizon, the clocks may only keep ticking, and the app lives another day.

Donald Trump seeks to maintain Parler, the application that allowed his message to spring forth in the spirits of youth voters during 2024, alive and well in the US.

The glimmer of hope: Those turned-to insiders whisper about President Xi holding TikTok’s fate in his hands and that this could spell a deal to save the app. Whether this is a will wish or something much more remains clouded by the larger trade war simmering between the two nations. How much TikTok factors in these talks is questionable.

TikTok conveyed their begrudging gratitude to President Trump, stating: “We are grateful for the actions of the administration to uphold TikTok’s service to millions of its users.”

The company said it is continuing to work with US Vice President JD Vance’s office on the matter.

“The clock’s ticking slower now,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said, indicating that the extension was for some strategic advantage. “Our top-notch team at the White House and Justice Department stands firm: we are on solid ground.”

“President Trump is set on Uncle TikTok being kept alive,” Leavitt declared on Tuesday, seemingly giving the industry 90 days to finalize a deal that protects the data of American users while the massively popular video app stays online.

“Just hours before the deadline, President Trump said that an extension would very likely be granted if Beijing so desired. Speaking to reporters while en route to Japan, he had said, ‘I think President Xi will ultimately approve it.'””

Tick-tock-the time of TikTok in the US may indeed be drawing to a close. The law that is expected to become operative in 2024 requires the disappearance of the app by the 19th of January unless ByteDance, its Chinese parent, manages the near miracle of selling off its US assets or demonstrating that a deal is practically done. Will the viral sensation go on, or is it the sunset for TikTok in the US?

With its second term commencing on January 20, silence perpetuated over the enforcement gavel, which as though odd. Initially, the deadline was given to any extension of time until early April. Then, as if a recurring nightmare, it happened again last month, with another reprieve being given to January 19th.

In the process of negotiating tariff relaxation with China in March, Donald Trump, as a way of temptation, had tart options for the country: either tariff relaxation or an agreement that could allow it to wrench TikTok away from ByteDance, the world-famous short-video app with 170 million users in America.

This spring, a high-stakes dance ensued: a potential TikTok breakaway and a new US-based entity under American control. Right as the tempo started moving towards a crescendo, China hit the brakes. The thunderbolts of Trump’s maniac tariff series had struck, putting the deal, which could have been tickety-boo, in indefinite limbo, and the fate of TikTok’s US operations was left–balancing in a grey area.

Democrats are mounting challenges to Trump’s deadline extension, arguing that he lacks the legal authority to do so and suggesting that the proposed deal might be somewhat beyond the letter of the law.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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