US President Donald Trump has said he will extend China-owned social media app TikTok’s divest-or-ban deadline again as a potential deal for the sale of its US assets has been stalled by Beijing due to an ongoing tariff war.
The deadline for the short video app used by 170 million Americans to finalise a deal or face a ban in the US — one of its biggest markets — is currently a little more than a month away on June 19.
“I would … I’d like to see it done,” Trump said of the deal he is reportedly at the helm of in a conversation with American broadcaster NBC News. The programme aired across the US on Sunday.
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Repeating comments he made shortly after his presidential election win last year, Trump said he had a “sweet spot” for the app after it helped him win over young voters.
“TikTok is – it’s very interesting, but it will be protected,” he added.
The divest-or-ban rule was enforced more than a year ago by the former Joe Biden administration, which said TikTok’s access to vast personal data of Americans and Chinese ownership make the app susceptible to espionage and influence operations by Beijing.
In subsequent legal challenges filed by TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance against the law, the US Department of Justice also said the app poses a national security risk. TikTok went on to lose the lawsuit and faced a January 19 deadline to divest its US assets or be banned in the US.
However, Trump, who took office a day after that deadline, granted the app a reprieve, saying he wanted to work out a deal to keep TikTok in the US. That gave TikTok a second deadline of April 5, but Trump extended that as well.
Tariffs in the mix
While a deal had been in the works that would spin off TikTok’s US operations, it was put on hold after Beijing indicated it would not approve it – as part of retaliation against steep tariffs Trump imposed against China last month.
The spin-off would have seen TikTok’s US operations reinstated as a new firm based in the United States and majority-owned and operated by US investors. Trump said he was willing to pare down tariffs on China in exchange for a deal, but Beijing turned that offer down.
Democratic senators have said that Trump has no legal authority to extend the divest-or-ban deadline. They also say that the deal that had been under consideration would not meet legal requirements.
One source close to ByteDance’s US investors said last month that work on the prospective deal continues ahead of the June 19 deadline, but the White House and Beijing would need to resolve the tariff dispute first.
Trump told NBC News that China was keen to reach an agreement, citing the impact that 145% tariffs on Chinese goods were having on its economy.
He said he would not drop the tariffs to get Beijing to the bargaining table, but could eventually lower them as part of a broader agreement.
“At some point, I’m going to lower them because otherwise, you could never do business with them. And they want to do business very much,” he said.
- Reuters, with additional editing by Vishakha Saxena
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