According to the latest rumors coming out of the White House, President Trump is reportedly intent on postponing TikTok’s ban for the third time in a few months in order to preserve the popular social network’s future in the country.
In January, the app was down for 12 hours in the United States because ByteDance, the platform’s parent company, based in China, did not divest the app’s U.S. operations, as required by law.
Since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump has therefore issued two executive orders to extend the ban’s expiration in hopes of reaching an agreement with the company. To date, however, the various attempts have fallen on deaf ears, partly due to the imposition of tariffs against Beijing, and the next deadline, scheduled for June 19, is fast approaching.
During an interview with NBC in May, the U.S. president stated that he would postpone the ban for a third time if the parties failed to reach an understanding.
Trump also explained that he has a “soft spot” for TikTok, which he said helped him get many votes during the 2024 presidential election: “It’ll be protected. It’ll be very strongly protected. But if it needs an extension, I would be willing to give it an extension.”
Under the federal legislation that introduced the TikTok ban, the president can extend the deadline for the sale by 90 days. But Trump did not take this route in either January or April, instead signing executive orders that postponed the ban by 75 days.
However, the president’s continued postponements, according to insiders, could lead Congress to pass legislation that would set the exact date when the app would no longer be available in the U.S.
Last year, the U.S. government–at the time headed by Joe Biden–said that Chinese company ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok poses a national security risk. U.S. officials fear the close ties between the company and Beijing, which could use the app to get its hands on the personal data of millions of residents.
For this reason, a large bipartisan majority in Congress passed a bill in April 2024 that would force ByteDance to divest the app. Otherwise, TikTok will be banned from U.S. online stores.
In recent months some U.S. judges have proposed less drastic measures to protect citizens, such as posting notices on the app to remind users that their data could be shared and used by Communist China, or banning TikTok from collecting personal information about Americans.
In the U.S., the app is used by more than 170 million members.
