Donald Trump Extends TikTok Sales Deadline For The Third Time

President of the United States, Donald Trump (right) with Emmnuel Macron (photo: x @potus)

JAKARTA The President of the United States, Donald Trump, will extend the deadline on June 19 for ByteDance, a Chinese company, owner of the short video app TikTok, to release its assets in the US for the next 90 days.

This decision was taken despite a law requiring the sale or closure of TikTok if there is no significant progress. This was conveyed by the White House on Tuesday, June 17 local time.

Trump has previously twice suspended the ban on TikTok, which was supposed to take effect in January. "President Trump will sign an additional executive order this week to ensure TikTok remains operational," said White House Press Secretary Krypto Leavitt.

With this extension, the new deadline will fall in mid-September. "President Trump doesn't want TikTok to go dark (closed, red)," Leavitt added. He explained that the government will take advantage of the next three months to ensure the sales process is complete so that Americans can continue to use TikTok with their data security guarantees.

Trump stated in May 2025 that he would extend the deadline as the app helped him reach young voters in the 2024 election. On Tuesday morning, while speaking to reporters on the Air Force One presidential plane, he also implied the same thing.

"It looks like, yes," Trump said when asked about possible extensions. Maybe it should get approval from China, but I think it will be obtained. I think President Xi (Jinping) will eventually agree.

In accordance with the applicable law, TikTok should have stopped operating on January 19, 2025 unless ByteDance had completed the release of its US assets or showed significant progress in the sales process. However, Trump, who started his second term on January 20, chose not to enforce the rules. He first extended the deadline until early April, then extended it again until June 19.

In March 2025, Trump said he was willing to reduce tariffs on Chinese goods as part of an effort to finalize a deal with ByteDance regarding TikTok's sales.

An agreement was drawn up this spring to separate TikTok operations in the US from being the majority-owned and operated new US-based company by US investors. However, the deal was suspended after China said it would not approve the plan, following Trump's announcement of a sharp increase in tariffs on imported goods from China.