President Donald Trump announced Friday that he will sign another executive order to allow TikTok to continue to operate in the U.S. for 75 days while a deal to sell the social media platform is negotiated. Trump made the announcement on Truth Social, the platform he continues to own in defiance of the U.S. Constitution’s emoluments clause, which prohibits the president from profiting through his position as the most powerful person in the country.
“My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress,” Trump wrote Friday. “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.”
Trump, who shared a video on Truth Social Friday that said he was “purposely” crashing the stock market, wrote that he’s trying to work with officials in China, where TikTok’s parent company Bytedance is based.
“We hope 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!” Trump continued.
Trump’s announcement on Wednesday of shockingly broad tariffs imposed on virtually every country around the world has roiled markets, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down over 1,600 points Friday at the time of this writing. Every country was hit with at least 10% tariffs, but China received an even higher tariff of 34%, on top of the 20% Trump had already imposed. China announced it was retaliating on Friday with its own 24% tariff on U.S. goods, according to the New York Times.
Tweet from President Donald Trump about a 75-day extension for the sale of TikTok on April 4, 2025. Screenshot: Truth SocialCongress passed a law in 2024, signed by President Joe Biden, that was supposed to force Bytedance to sell TikTok to American interests or it would be banned from operating in the U.S. The platform briefly went dark in the U.S. for a couple of days when the deadline of Jan. 19 passed without a sale, but Trump revived the company’s operations by simply declaring he was giving TikTok an extension. That extension was due to expire on April 5, but Trump’s new 75-day extension appears to give the company until June 19 to be sold or face a ban.
“We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark.’ We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump wrote on Truth Social in his characteristically weird manner.
Several potential buyers have reportedly put in bids for the company, including Amazon, Oracle, CNBC personality Kevin O’Leary, and online media brand Mr. Beast, among others. But Bytedance has reportedly said it’s not interested in selling. The main sticking point appears to be TikTok’s algorithm, which the Chinese government considers proprietary technology that can’t be exported to foreign adversaries like the U.S. Hypothetically, a U.S. entity could buy the TikTok brand without the algorithm, but it’s not clear whether there’s any interest in that. The algorithm is really the whole reason people use TikTok.
English (US) ·