Third time’s the charm? Trump willing to give TikTok another extension

President Donald Trump is prepared to give TikTok an extension for the third time if a deal isn’t made before the current deadline of June 19th.

In April 2024, the United States Senate passed a law requiring TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to divest from the app before January 19th, 2025. If the app wasn’t sold by then, it would be banned in the United States due to national security concerns.

In December 2024, just before Trump would start his second term in office, the President-elect filed an amicus curiae, a court document in which he asked the Supreme Court to postpone its decision regarding the TikTok ban.

In the letter, he wrote that he wanted to negotiate a deal that could save TikTok and handle national security concerns.

As soon as Trump took office in January 2025, he signed an Executive Order to delay the TikTok ban for 90 days. However, ByteDance wasn’t able to find a non-Chinese buyer for TikTok.

Just as the deadline of April 5th approached, President Trump gave the company another extension of 75 days, which will end on June 19th.

However, he said that his administration had made “tremendous progress” in a deal to “save TikTok.”

“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,” Trump said on his social media platform, Truth Social.

In an interview with NBC’s Meet The Press, he repeated he would be willing to give TikTok another reprieve if a deal isn’t made with the video platform’s owner before June 19th.

“Perhaps I shouldn't say this, but I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said during the interview. In addition, he promised that the app will be protected.

TikTok has approximately 170 million users in the United States.