MORRISTOWN, N.J. — US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he might not extend the deadline for a deal with the social media company TikTok. He added he might let the app “die.” As the September 17 deadline for a possible sale of TikTok’s US assets gets closer, he made these statements.
Trump was asked in New Jersey before getting on Air Force One if he would give TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, another extension. “I might or might not.” “We’re talking about TikTok right now,” Trump stated. “We might let it die, or we might…I don’t know. It all hinges on China. Not a big deal. I’d love to do it for the kids since they like it.
If the deadline is pushed back this week, it will be the fourth time Trump has given ByteDance a break from a federal regulation that said the company had to sell or shut down the app by January 2025. Trump has put off enforcing the rule many times since he started his second term in January. He says he wants to save the app because he thinks it is important for reaching young people.
Washington hawks have long worried that Beijing may use TikTok to spy on, blackmail, or restrict Americans, making the app’s future a complicated subject. But any arrangement for a US buyer to take over the app’s operations has been reluctant to move forward because the Chinese government needs to provide its consent for the transfer of TikTok’s valuable algorithm.
In the spring, it was said that a deal was almost done that would have split TikTok’s US operations into a separate US-based company. But China stopped making advances once Trump announced high tariffs on Chinese imports.
As US and Chinese officials hold high-level trade discussions in Spain, Trump’s most recent comments come at a time when TikTok is allegedly on the menu for the first time in bilateral negotiations. Some insiders say that another extension is likely to give these trade talks political cover and more time. However, the President’s comments add a new level of uncertainty to the platform’s future.