President Trump is extending the deadline for the divestment of TikTok by the video sharing app’s parent company ByteDance by 90 more days, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday.
Leavitt confirmed that Trump will sign another executive order this week, just hours after the US president said he would likely extend the divestment deadline to prevent the TikTok ban from taking effect in the country.
“President Trump will sign an additional Executive Order this week to keep TikTok up and running,” W Leavitt said on Tuesday.
She added the 90-day extension would “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.”
“We’ll probably have to get China approval,” Trump told the BBC earlier on Tuesday. “I think we’ll get it. I think President Xi will ultimately approve it.”
The order represents the third time Trump has extended the ban deadline since taking office in January.
The law requiring TikTok’s parent company, China-based ByteDance, to divest from the platform or face a ban on US networks and app stores was signed by former President Biden in 2024.
The law initially went into effect on 19 January, the day before Trump was sworn in for his second term, causing Tik Tok to shut down for less than 24 hours.
Trump resumed the operations when he took office and gave TikTok’s parent company ByteDance 75 days beyond the initial January deadline to divest from the platform due to national security concerns and the handling of US users’ data.
In April, the White House was close to concluding a deal, but it crumbled when Trump announced new reciprocal tariffs that included significant taxation on Chinese imports.
The new deadline has now been extended to 19 June.
