The White House confirmed today that President Donald Trump will sign a new executive order giving TikTok 90 days to avoid a U.S. ban. This marks the third time Trump has delayed enforcement of the law that technically went into effect in January.
As reported by CNN, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the following in a statement:
“President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark. (…) This extension will last 90 days, which the Administration will spend working to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure.”
The move will keep TikTok accessible for its 170 million American users, despite bipartisan legislation that, on paper, still requires ByteDance to sell off the app or face an outright ban in the U.S.
A ban that’s never actually been enforced
The original sale-or-ban deadline passed in mid-January, triggering a brief 14-hour TikTok outage before Trump stepped in with a 75-day extension as one of his first acts after taking office. When that delay ran out in April, he announced another 75-day pause.
Now, with that second window set to expire this week, TikTok is getting an even longer, 90-day lifeline, which comes at the same time as the U.S. and China work to dial down tensions over trade and technology.
So… what’s next?
Trump said Tuesday that he’s optimistic a deal will eventually happen, telling reporters that a TikTok sale will “probably” need approval from the Chinese government:
“I think we’ll get it. I think President Xi will ultimately approve it, yes.”
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