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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump will sign an executive order to extend a pause on the ban for 90 more days, CNBC reported. An extension would push the Thursday, June 19, deadline to Wednesday, Sept. 17.
The divest-or-ban bill became law in April 2024. The ban's enforcement has been postponed for a third time under Trump, who once advocated for banning the popular video app.
The pause is purportedly to give China-based ByteDance more time to sell TikTok's US operations.
"As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark," Leavitt said in a statement. "This extension will last 90 days, which the administration will spend working to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure."
The law upheld by the Supreme Court would make it illegal for US companies to distribute or support TikTok after the deadline without an approved sale. TikTok briefly went dark in the US on Sunday, January 19, before Trump signed the first extension when he returned to office.
Legal experts question if Trump has the authority to keep extending the deadline. Trump's extensions aren't codified into law like the ban, which Congress passed with bipartisan support.
The Verge reported that ByteDance nearly struck a deal with Oracle in April. Negotiations have stalled since Trump imposed up to 145% tariffs on China, although that duty rate has been temporarily lowered to 30%.
Lawmakers in Congress have warned that Trump's delays may violate the law and help big tech giants like Apple and Google avoid paying huge penalties for keeping TikTok active.
"The whole thing is a sham if the algorithm doesn't move from out of Beijing's hands," Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) told The Verge in April. "Close to 80 percent of Republicans knew this was a national security threat — will they find their voice now?"
Even lawmakers opposed to banning TikTok have called Trump's delays illegal.
"It is unacceptable and unworkable for your administration to continue ignoring the requirements in the law," Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) wrote in a March letter to Trump. "TikTok's creators deserve a real solution — not more legal uncertainty. We urge you to work with Congress to ensure that TikTok remains online in the United States."
While Republicans haven't called Trump's extensions illegal, a dozen House GOP members wrote in April that "any resolution must ensure that US law is followed" to make sure China can't access Americans' data or manipulate the content they consume.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, a vocal opponent of TikTok, has said he doesn't believe Trump should keep delaying the ban.
"This middle way, I don't think is viable," he told reporters in April.
Beyond Oracle, potential TikTok buyers have included Amazon, billionaire Frank McCourt's "The People's Bid," Microsoft, and Walmart. TikTok's algorithm has made valuing the app very difficult, with estimates ranging from $20 billion without it and $300 billion if included, Forbes reported.
TikTok had 1.93 billion users worldwide as of January, including 170 million in the US, according to the software platform SEO.ai.
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