United States President Donald Trump has again postponed enforcing a ban, or sale, on TikTok in the U.S.
The announcement was made last Friday and follows his administration's tariff new global tariffs, with CNN reporting that a deal that had been set to transfer control of the app’s U.S. operations to home soil ownership in the State's but the new tariffs to be thrown China's way have thrown a spanner in the works.
“My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress.
In a post on post on Truth Social, explaining the new delay, Trump wrote that his administration “has been working very hard” to save TikTok but that it required “more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed”.
"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. We hope to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs (Necessary for Fair and Balanced Trade between China and the U.S.A.!)."
Trump on Friday signed an executive order formalising the enforcement delay, a source familiar with the order told CNN.
The announcement comes just one day before the ban was set to come into effect, after Trump delayed it by an initial 75 days when he took office in January.
Former President Joe Biden signed a law last year that required TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to divest the app or face a US ban, over national security concerns.
The law was set to go into effect in January, but Trump said he would delay its enforcement in hopes of reaching a deal to keep the app “alive.”
Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance — who was tapped with leading the TikTok dealmaking effort — repeatedly said in recent days that they expected there would be a deal by the April 5 deadline.
A deal was finalized on Wednesday and Trump was expected to formally sign off on it in an executive order later this week, the source familiar with the deal said.
The order would have kicked off a 120-day period to finish financing and paperwork for the deal, which would have seen a number of venture capital, private equity funds and tech giants invest in a company that would control TikTok’s US operations.
TikTok’s China-based owner, ByteDance, would have retained a 20% stake in the spinoff company.
For the deal to comply with the law, ByteDance can own no more than 20% of the platform. It also states that the app’s US operations cannot coordinate with ByteDance on the app’s algorithm or data sharing practices.
New and existing US TikTok investors, ByteDance and the Trump administration had all agreed to the deal, the source said, but that changed after Trump announced his additional 34% tariff on China.
Representatives for ByteDance informed the White House on Thursday morning that China was pulling out of the deal until negotiations were held regarding the tariffs.
Trump and the White House team overseeing the deal ultimately decided on Friday to delay enforcement of the ban by another 75 days as it was unclear where the talks would go from here.
Trump did not offer any details on the progress of the potential deal in his Friday post, but indicated more time is needed to finalise it.
