Trump extends TikTok deal deadline to June 19
President Trump is giving the Chinese owner of TikTok more time to divest its U.S. operations.
In a post on his Truth Social social media network, Trump said his administration is making "tremendous progress" in its effort to find a new owner for the U.S. business of TikTok and he will sign an executive order to keep TikTok up and running here for an additional 75 days from its original April 5, 2025 divestiture deadline (June 19, 2025).
"The deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed," Trump said in the post. "We hope to continue working in good faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our reciprocal tariffs."
[READ MORE: Trump issues reciprocal tariffs]
The continuing saga of whether TikTok will continue to operate in the U.S. dates back to the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which was signed by President Biden in April 2024 in response to longstanding concerns over possible ties between TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance and the Chinese Communist Party and possible risks to U.S. user privacy (ByteDance and TikTok have publicly denied the validity of these concerns).
Due to this legislation, which makes it unlawful for U.S. companies to distribute, maintain, or update TikTok unless U. S. operation of the Chinese-owned platform is severed from Chinese control, TikTok briefly went dark in the U.S. during the weekend of Jan. 18-19, and Trump stated in his post he does not want TikTok to “go dark.”
However, President Trump temporarily repealed the ban for a review period which initially expired Saturday, April 5, 2025. Media reports indicate Trump and the U.S. government have been actively exploring possible business deals that would let TikTok continue operating in the U.S.
Suitors for U.S. TikTok business emerge
Media reports indicate there is no lack of interested purchasers for TikTok’s U.S. enterprise, although no figures have been officially mentioned. In February 2025, an executive order from the White House mandated the federal government to establish a sovereign wealth fund, which uses government assets to invest in global markets, companies, real estate and private equity and could be used for the U.S. government to partially or fully finance a TikTok acquisition.
And according to Reuters, Amazon has placed a bid to purchase the U.S. business TikTok from ByteDance. Although Amazon, TikTok and ByteDance have all declined public comment so far, Reuters said a Trump administration official confirmed that Amazon sent a letter to Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick requesting to make an offer to purchase TikTok’s U.S. operation.
Other interested bidders are said to include Oracle, which has been storing TikTok’s U.S. data on its servers since 2022, as well as an investor group led by the founder of adult entertainment platform OnlyFans, a group of non-Chinese ByteDance shareholders, and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
