“As he has repeatedly stated, President Trump does not want TikTok to be shut down. This extension will last 90 days, during which the administration will work to ensure this deal is finalized, allowing the American people to continue using TikTok with the confidence that their data is secure,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated on Tuesday.
Trump shared the executive order on the Truth Social platform Thursday morning.
This marks the third time Trump has extended the deadline. The initial order was issued on January 20, his first day in office, after the platform experienced a brief shutdown due to a national ban—approved by Congress and upheld by the US Supreme Court. The second extension occurred in April, when White House officials thought they were close to striking a deal for a US-owned spinoff of TikTok, a plan that collapsed after China withdrew in response to Trump’s tariff announcement.
It remains uncertain how many extensions Trump can—or will—enact as the government seeks to negotiate a deal concerning TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance. Although there isn’t a clear legal foundation for the extensions, they have not faced any legal challenges to date. Trump has garnered over 15 million followers on TikTok since joining last year, crediting the platform with helping him connect with young voters, noting in January that he has a “warm spot for TikTok.”
As these extensions continue, the likelihood of a TikTok ban in the US seems to be diminishing. The decision to keep TikTok operational through an executive order has attracted some scrutiny, yet it hasn’t encountered a legal challenge in court—unlike many of Trump’s other executive directives.
Jeremy Goldman, an analyst at Emarketer, described TikTok’s U.S. situation as a “deadline purgatory.”
The entire scenario “is starting to feel less like a ticking clock and more like a looped ringtone. This political Groundhog Day is beginning to resemble the debt ceiling saga: a recurring threat with no real resolution.”
Currently, TikTok continues to serve its 170 million users in the US, with tech giants Apple, Google, and Oracle agreeing to maintain support for the app, assured that Trump’s Justice Department would refrain from pursuing potentially severe fines against them.
Americans’ views on TikTok have become even more divided than they were two years ago.
A recent Pew Research Center survey revealed that about one-third of Americans supported a TikTok ban, down from 50% in March 2023. Approximately one-third opposed a ban, while a similar portion remained undecided.
Among those favoring a ban, nearly 80% cited concerns over data security as a significant factor in their stance, according to the report.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, remarked that the Trump administration is once again “flouting the law and disregarding its own national security findings about the risks” associated with a China-controlled TikTok.
“An executive order cannot bypass the law, but that’s precisely what the president is attempting to do,” Warner added.
