Trump extends TikTok deal deadline by 75 days, touts ‘tremendous progress’

President Donald Trump on Friday said that he will extend the deadline for TikTok’s owner to find a non-Chinese buyer by 75 days, averting what could have been another disruption to the app.

ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, must find a non-Chinese buyer for the app or else it will be banned under a law passed in 2024. Trump had previously delayed the app’s ban via executive order on his first day in office, effectively giving ByteDance until April 5 — Saturday —  to comply with the law. 

“My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress,” he wrote in a TruthSocial post. “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.”

ByteDance, which previously said it did not plan to sell TikTok, has remained silent about whether it was in talks with bidders and has not publicly confirmed it would divest at all. 

NBC News has reached out to TikTok for comment.

“We do not want TikTok to “go dark,” Trump wrote in his Truth Social post.

He also referenced his recently imposed tariffs, saying said the administration hopes “to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs (Necessary for Fair and Balanced Trade between China and the U.S.A.!). This proves that Tariffs are the most powerful Economic tool, and very important to our National Security!”

China on Friday announced a 34% tariff on all products imported from the U.S., escalating the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

TikTok’s future in the United States has been in limbo ever since former President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan legislation last year, with lawmakers citing national security concerns over the possibility of China accessing American users’ data. 

The app has over 170 million U.S. users. 

TikTok attempted to challenge the ban, but the Supreme Court upheld it in the final days of the Biden administration. By that point, however, both Biden and Trump had begun to distance themselves from the ban, with the former saying he would leave it up to the Trump administration to enforce.  

The app briefly went dark in the U.S. just before Trump’s inauguration, but restored service after the president signaled that he would work with ByteDance to find a solution. 

Trump held a White House meeting Wednesday with Vice President JD Vance and a group of advisers to weigh final TikTok offers. 

Numerous prospective bidders have expressed interest in acquiring the popular social media platform from ByteDance. 

These include the likes of Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who joined billionaire investor Frank McCourt’s bid; artificial intelligence search engine startup Perplexity AI; and former Trump administration Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

On Wednesday, e-commerce giant Amazon and mobile technology company AppLovin became the latest companies to throw their hats in the ring.