Muhammed Selim Korkutata | Anadolu | Getty Images
President Donald Trump has extended the deadline for TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to sell the short form video app to an American owner.
On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order granting a third extension for the Chinese company to sell its video platform so it can continue to operate in the country.
“I’ve just signed the Executive Order extending the Deadline for the TikTok closing for 90 days (September 17, 2025). Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump said on Truth Social.
While aboard Air Force One on Wednesday morning, Trump said he believed Chinese President Xi Jinping would be amenable toward a deal selling the wildly popular app. Trump said he believed Xi would have to sign off on a deal if a buyer comes forward. ByteDance is based in Beijing.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that the administration wanted to ensure Americans could continue to access TikTok.
“As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark. This extension will last 90 days, which the Administration will spend working to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure,” Leavitt said.
TikTok has 170 million users in the United States and support for a ban has declined, according to Pew Research. A law banning TikTok initially passed under the Biden Administration over national security concerns, which led the app to briefly go offline ahead of Trump’s inauguration earlier this year.
However, once Trump signaled he planned to keep the app running in the U.S., TikTok resumed functioning.
TikTok has denied that it posed any security concerns to the United States and said American data is not stored in China. After the TikTok ban passed last year, American users began flocking to Chinese social media app RedNote claiming they were indifferent to China accessing their data. Since TikTok was given an extension in the United States, it appears users have returned to the platform and are using RedNote less.
Once in office, Trump signed an extension of the deadline to sell the app, giving ByteDance 75 days to find a buyer. That extension ended on April 5. Ahead of the April 5 deadline, some potential TikTok suitors expressed interest in purchasing the app. Amazon made a last-minute bid to buy TIkTok. Others who expressed interest included Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who joined billionaire investor Frank McCourt’s bid; artificial intelligence search engine startup Perplexity AI; and Steven Mnuchin, treasury secretary in the first Trump administration.
Top Trump officials were confident the app would sell but after sweeping tariffs were placed on China, no deal was made. Trump then gave the app another 90 days, which was set to expire on Thursday.
Under the law, ByteDance must sell TikTok to a U.S.-based buyer. ByteDance previously said it would not sell TikTok and has been quiet on whether it has decided to make a deal.
A spokesperson for TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The position to keep TikTok in the United States is an about face from Trump’s first term, during which he signed an executive order banning it. That ban was later overturned by the courts.
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the Biden era law banning the app unless it is sold to an American owner.