Trump extends TikTok ban deadline as China pauses deal

The Trump TikTok ban delay just bought negotiators more time. President Trump has officially postponed enforcement of the sell-or-ban law for another 75 days. This is the second delay, and it happened quickly after things got messy over tariffs.

Trump and Vice President JD Vance had both been saying the TikTok deal would wrap up by the April 5 deadline. In fact, the deal was finalized earlier in the week. Trump was expected to sign off with an executive order, which would have triggered a 120-day period to complete the financing and paperwork.

US investors and tech giants would take control of TikTok’s US operations. ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, would still hold a 20% stake, which is within the legal limit. ByteDance can’t go over 20%, and it’s banned from controlling TikTok’s algorithm or sharing data.

However, following Trump’s announcement of his 34% tariffs on China, ByteDance hit pause. According to insiders, ByteDance told the White House they were freezing the deal until it could hash things out over the new tariffs.

Now, Trump’s team has decided to hold off enforcing the ban. In his Friday post on Truth Social, Trump didn’t give details, except to say, “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.”

The ban was supposed to kick in on January 5th, after Trump’s first 75-day delay in January. Now, with this new extension, the TikTok saga will drag on for 75 more days.