WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an to keep TikTok running in the U.S. for another 90 days to give his administration more time to broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership.
Trump disclosed the executive order on the Truth Social platform Thursday morning.
鈥淎s he has said many times, 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,鈥� White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Tuesday.
It is the third time Trump has extended the deadline. The first one was through an executive order on Jan. 20, his first day in office, after the platform went dark briefly when a national ban 鈥� and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court 鈥� took effect. The when White House officials believed they were nearing a deal to spin off TikTok into a new company with U.S. ownership that fell apart after China backed out following Trump鈥檚 tariff announcement.
It is not clear how many times Trump can 鈥� or will 鈥� keep extending the ban as the government continues to try to negotiate a deal for TikTok, which is owned by China鈥檚 ByteDance. While there is no clear legal basis for the extensions, so far there have been . Trump has amassed more than 15 million followers on TikTok since , and he has credited the trendsetting platform with helping him gain traction among young voters. He said in January that he has a 鈥渨arm spot for TikTok.鈥�
TikTok praised Trump for signing an extension Thursday.
鈥淲e are grateful for President Trump鈥檚 leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users and 7.5 million U.S. businesses that rely on the platform as we continue to work with Vice President Vance鈥檚 Office,鈥� the company said in a statement.
As the extensions continue, it appears less and less likely that TikTok will be banned in the U.S. any time soon. The decision to keep TikTok alive through an executive order has received some scrutiny, but it has 鈥� unlike many of Trump鈥檚 other executive orders.
Jeremy Goldman, analyst at Emarketer, called TikTok鈥檚 U.S situation a 鈥渄eadline purgatory.鈥�
The whole thing 鈥渋s starting to feel less like a ticking clock and more like a looped ringtone. This political Groundhog Day is starting to resemble the debt ceiling drama: a recurring threat with no real resolution.鈥�
That's not stopping TikTok from pushing forward with its platform, Forrester analyst Kelsey Chickering says.
鈥淭ikTok鈥檚 behavior also indicates they鈥檙e confident in their future, as they rolled out new AI video tools at Cannes this week,鈥� Chickering notes. 鈥淪maller players, like Snap, will try to steal share during this 鈥榰ncertain time,鈥� but they will not succeed because this next round for TikTok isn鈥檛 uncertain at all.鈥�
For now, TikTok continues to function for its 170 million users in the U.S., and tech giants Apple, Google and Oracle were persuaded to continue to offer and support the app, on the promise that Trump鈥檚 Justice Department would not use the law to seek potentially steep fines against them.
Americans are even more closely divided on what to do about TikTok than they were two years ago.
A recent found that about one-third of Americans said they supported a TikTok ban, down from 50% in March 2023. Roughly one-third said they would oppose a ban, and a similar percentage said they weren鈥檛 sure.
Among those who said they supported banning the social media platform, about 8 in 10 cited concerns over users鈥� data security being at risk as a major factor in their decision, according to the report.
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the Trump administration is once again 鈥渇louting the law and ignoring its own national security findings about the risks鈥� posed by a China-controlled TikTok.
鈥淎n executive order can鈥檛 sidestep the law, but that鈥檚 exactly what the president is trying to do,鈥� Warner added.
Barbara Ortutay, The Associated Press
