President Trump said Thursday that he will “probably” grant an extension on TikTok’s deadline to find an American buyer or be banned in the United States.
“We have a lot of interest in TikTok. China is going to play a role, so hopefully China will approve of the deal,” Mr. Trump said.
When asked how long the extension will be, he said, “We’ll see.”
President Biden in April signed into law the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act mandating that Chinese-owned company ByteDance sell the app by Jan. 19 or be banned in the U.S.
On his first day in office, Mr. Trump signed an executive order delaying the ban for 75 days.
The president used to be an advocate for a TikTok ban, citing threats to national security since the owner of the app is Chinese-owned. But he started to sing a different tune after he saw support from young people — the biggest American demographic on the app.
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian announced earlier this week that he has joined efforts to buy TikTok with billionaire Frank McCourt.
“I’m officially now one of the people trying to buy TikTok U.S. — and bring it on-chain,” he wrote in an X post Tuesday. “TikTok has been a game-changer for creators, and its future should be built by them.”
“Users should own their data. Creators should own their audience. Period,” he wrote. “Frequency will empower these principles to become reality. And with transparency and accountability at the core, this new TikTok won’t just be fairer—it’ll be GREATER.”
“We’re setting a new standard for what’s possible in digital communities. A TikTok for the people, by the people. Let’s see if we can pull this off,” he said.
