President Donald Trump said Friday that he would extend the deadline for TikTok to find a U.S. buyer for 75 days.
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order pushing the January deadline for TikTok to divest to April 5. The president had tapped Vice President JD Vance to lead the administration’s effort to find a U.S. buyer.
“My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress. 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 wrote on Truth Social while in South Florida on Friday.
A number of possible American buyers had emerged ahead of the April 5 deadline, including Amazon, Oracle, and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary. Officials in the White House and the office of the vice president declined to answer questions about the sale on Friday.
Trump and Vance had voiced confidence that they could broker a sale ahead of April 5, but China would also have to approve the deal to prevent TikTok from ending its operations on U.S. soil. The president signaled last week that he would consider easing newly enacted tariffs on China to close any TikTok deal.
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Trump had previously supported banning the app and its parent company, ByteDance, from U.S. markets over national security concerns, but the president publicly flipped on the issue following the results of the 2024 general election.
Trump suggested on Friday his new tariffs on China and other trading partners are factoring into the TikTok talks.
“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.!),” he wrote. “This proves that Tariffs are the most powerful Economic tool, and very important to our National Security! We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark.’ We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal.”
