- Platform’s Chinese owner ByteDance gets 75 days to reach deal
- Order offers TikTok a lifeline after court challenge fails
President
TikTok’s lifeline came via an
Trump highlighted TikTok during a lengthy orders-signing ceremony at the White House, reiterating his stance that American companies should own half of the social video phenom. At one point, he said the US arm of the platform — estimated to be worth around
“TikTok is worthless, worthless, if I don’t approve it,” Trump said as he signed the order, suggesting he might be open to a joint venture with TikTok. “I could see making a deal where the U.S. gets 50 percent of TikTok, polices it a little bit, or a lot, depends on them.”
Read More:
Whether his order alone is enough to stave off a ban remains unclear. According to the law, an extension is only possible if the president can show Congress that there’s a viable path forward to a deal, that “significant progress” has been made and that legal agreements are in place to close a deal with ByteDance in that new time frame. There’s no public evidence
Trump’s intervention marked the latest twist in a years-long saga in Washington fueled by concerns that China could use the app to harvest American users’ data and disseminate propaganda — claims the company has strenuously denied. The order highlighted a turnabout for the president, who tried to ban TikTok in his first term but came to embrace it as a conduit to young voters during his comeback bid for the White House.
“I have a warm spot for TikTok that I didn’t have originally,” Trump said. “Republicans typically don’t do too well with young people, but it’s a different Republican Party.”
TikTok and a legion of the platform’s content creators had fought the measure signed last year by President
President Donald Trump has temporarily halted a ban on TikTok in the US, granting the company more time to reach a deal for the social media app. Source: APTN
Under the law, tech companies that host and distribute TikTok — including
Late on Saturday, TikTok made good on its threat to pull the plug on the app for its 170 million U.S. users, citing a lack of clarity about its fate during the last day of the Biden administration and the start of the Trump term. Users were greeted with an in-app message on the site’s home screen saying the service would be “temporarily unavailable,” while app stores operated by Apple and Google removed TikTok.
That was a fate that Trump and some of his advisers, along with a growing number of US lawmakers, had hoped to avoid. Shortly after the Supreme Court issued its decision, Trump said he had spoken with Chinese President
Read more:
It’s far from certain that a sale will materialize, and ByteDance has previously said that it has no intention of divesting. But Trump, who prides himself on his dealmaking abilities, is hoping he can help facilitate an arrangement now that he’s back in the White House.
Finding a buyer for TikTok would be a challenge, not just because of ByteDance’s reluctance but because of the expected price tag. Few companies or individuals could likely afford the app.
One prospective ownership group
During Trump’s first term as president, Oracle and
Read more:
Another hurdle would be the Chinese government, which sees tech companies like ByteDance as an extension of its tech ambitions, according to
“Allowing a foreign entity, particularly from the US, to acquire a controlling stake could be perceived as a loss of sovereignty over an influential digital platform,” Li said. “This is particularly sensitive given TikTok’s global reach and potential to shape narratives.”
On Monday, Trump signaled that he might resort to tariffs to prod officials in Beijing into accepting a TikTok deal. “If we wanted to make a deal with TikTok, and it was a good deal, and China wouldn’t approve it, then I think ultimately they’d approve it, because we’d put tariffs on China,” Trump told reporters. “I’m not saying I would, but you certainly could do that.”
Trump’s conversation with Xi days before the inauguration could prove critical in winning over Chinese officials who have previously opposed a sale. Signs of a thaw in Beijing regarding a divestment appeared last week in Beijing,
Read More:
Musk, now one of Trump’s closest allies after spending more than $200 million on his campaign, owns the X social media platform and an artificial intelligence company,
Ahead of Trump’s inauguration, TikTok escalated its appeals to the incoming president, highlighted by Chief Executive Officer
According to the order, Trump and his advisers will review “sensitive intelligence” related to the national security concerns posed by TikTok before deciding on a path that will keep the platform operating in the US.
But key Republican leaders in Congress have made clear that that they still expect ByteDance to sell TikTok despite Trump’s confidence in some type of solution. There must be a “full divestiture” from the Chinese Communist Party, House Speaker Mike Johnson said on NBC’s Meet the Press, while Senate Intelligence Committee chair
(Updates with more from Oval Office signing starting in third paragraph.)
--With assistance from
To contact the reporters on this story:
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Michael Shepard, Edwin Chan
© 2025 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Learn more about Bloomberg Law or Log In to keep reading:
Learn About Bloomberg Law
AI-powered legal analytics, workflow tools and premium legal & business news.
Already a subscriber?
Log in to keep reading or access research tools.