TikTok gets to live another day as Trump prepares to sign another executive order
That’s because President Trump is about to give TikTok another chance by signing yet another, additional executive order to keep the lights on what is some 170 million Americans’ favorite app.
The June 19 deadline (signed previously by Trump) is upon us, but the ByteDance-owned app hasn’t been sold to a US-based party so far, so the administration hopes this will happen until mid-September.
President Trump will sign an additional executive order this week to keep TikTok up and running.
–White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, June 2025.
A spokesperson for President Trump said the administration does not intend for TikTok to be shut down. The next three months would be used to ensure a sale is finalized, allowing the platform to remain available in the US with potentially stronger data protections.Trump, who previously credited TikTok for helping him connect with younger voters during the 2024 election, indicated in May that he would extend the June 19 deadline for the app’s sale. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, he said he expected another extension, adding that the deal would likely require approval from Chinese authorities and expressing confidence that President Xi would ultimately agree.Under the law signed by Biden last year, TikTok was required to cease operations in the US by January 19 unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, completed a sale or showed meaningful progress toward divesting its US operations. Trump, who began his second term on January 20, chose not to enforce the deadline, instead extending it: first to April and then, a second time, to June 19.
In March, Trump signaled openness to lowering tariffs on Chinese imports to facilitate a deal with ByteDance. A proposal was in progress earlier this year that would spin off TikTok’s US operations into a new company owned and operated by US investors. However, the talks stalled after China responded negatively to Trump’s announcement of higher tariffs on Chinese products. Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers argue that Trump lacks the legal authority to extend the deadline and claim the proposed transaction does not comply with existing legal standards.
