The Trump administration is expected to once again extend a September 17 deadline for China’s ByteDance to divest the U.S. assets of short-video app TikTok or shut it down, a source familiar with the matter said.
If granted, it would be the fourth reprieve by President Donald Trump from enforcement of a law that originally gave ByteDance until January 2025 to sell or close down the popular social media platform.
Last month, Trump said he had U.S. buyers lined up for the app and hinted at further extensions. But on Sunday, he struck an equivocal tone when asked about the app’s future.
“I may or may not, we’re negotiating TikTok right now. We may let it die, or we may, I don’t know, it depends, up to China,” Trump told reporters. “It doesn’t matter too much. I’d like to do it for the kids.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the expected extension, which, if granted, would reflect a reluctance to shut down an app used by 170 million Americans.
While China hawks in Washington have long warned that Beijing could exploit TikTok to spy on, blackmail or censor Americans, Trump has repeatedly said he wants to “save the app.”
Progress on a deal has been slow, largely because any transfer of TikTok’s prized algorithm to a U.S. buyer requires approval from Beijing.
A deal had been in development in the spring that would have spun off TikTok’s U.S. operations into a new American-based company, majority-owned and run by U.S. investors. However, the plan stalled after China signalled it would not approve the move following Trump’s announcement of steep tariffs on Chinese goods.
Also Read: TikTok Removes 3.6 Million Videos in Nigeria for Violations
On Sunday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer began trade talks in Spain with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and top negotiator Li Chenggang. The discussions are expected to touch on TikTok, though a deal before the September 17 deadline is unlikely, the source said.
TikTok was not raised in previous rounds of U.S.–China trade talks in Geneva, London and Stockholm. However, the source said its inclusion as a formal agenda item in Spain gives the Trump administration “political cover” for another extension a move that may frustrate both Republicans and Democrats in Congress who mandated TikTok’s sale.
Trump, who began his second term as president on January 20, has already extended the deadline three times: first from January to early April, then from May to June, and again from June to September.
