Donald Trump postponed for the third time the deadline until Tiktok has to change his owner in the USA
Illustrative image of the Tiktok application logo on a smartphone screen, with the US flag and Donald Trump's face. Photo source: – / Images / Profimedia
US President Donald Trump extended on Thursday until September 17 The deadline for Byteance, a company based in China, to sell US assets of the Tiktok application, despite a law that required the sale or closing of the application in the absence of significant progress, reports Reuters.
Trump signed an executive order that postponed the deadline of Thursday 90 days, a step he had previously anticipated.
The president has already decided twice a postponement of the application of the federal law that provided for the sale or closing of Tiktok, a law that would enter into force in January, if there were no significant progress to a sale.
Trump said he wants the application to remain active in the US, helping him to attract young voters in the 2024 presidential elections.
He also expressed his optimism that Chinese President XI Jinping will approve an agreement to keep the application, although it is not clear how much this topic has been discussed in the ongoing negotiations between the two countries on the tariff dispute.
“We are grateful for President Trump's leadership and support in ensuring that Tiktok continues to be available,” Tiktok said in a statement published on his website.
The company said that he still works with the office of the US Vice -President, JD Vance, on this topic.
Trump “doesn't want Tiktok to disappear”
“It is more time; more time to end a good understanding,” said the White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, in a press statement on Thursday. She added that the lawyers of the White House and the Department of Justice believe that the extension has a solid legal basis.
Leavitt said on Tuesday that “President Trump does not want Tiktok to disappear” and added that the administration will spend the next three months ensuring that the sale will be completed and that the US consumers data will be protected.
Trump said on Tuesday that “probably” will expand the deadline. “We will probably have to get the approval of China, but I think we will get it,” he told the journalists on board Air Force One. “I think President XI will eventually approve it.”
A law adopted in 2024 required Tiktok to cease operations until January 19, if the Chinese parent company Bytedance did not complete the selling of the US Assets of the application or does not demonstrate significant progress towards a sale.
Trump started his second term of president on January 20 and chose not to apply the law. It initially extended the deadline until the beginning of April, and then again, last month, until June 19.
In March, Trump said he would be willing to reduce China's rates to conclude an agreement with Bytedance on the sale of the short video applied by 170 million Americans.
An agreement was in the process of negotiating in the spring, which would have involved the detachment of the US Tiktok operations in a new headquarters in the US, mostly owned by American investors, but it was suspended after China indicated that it would not approve, following Trump's ads on the high rates imposed on Chinese products.
Some Democratic MPs claim that Trump does not have the legal authority to extend the deadline and suggest that the agreement in question would not meet the legal requirements.
