President Trump signed an executive order Monday giving TikTok an additional 75 days before a law banning the popular video-sharing platform takes effect.
Trump instructed his attorney general not to enforce the law so his administration can “determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform used by millions of Americans.”
TikTok briefly shut down the app in the U.S. over the weekend, leaving American users unable to access the platform for more than 12 hours starting late Saturday night.
The brief shutdown came as a law, which required the app’s China-based parent company ByteDance to divest from the platform or face a ban, took effect Sunday. The Supreme Court upheld the law Friday, ruling it did not violate the First Amendment and teeing up a ban.
Under Trump’s order, the Justice Department was ordered not to take any action to enforce the law for any entities that might have gone against the measure between Sunday and his signing of the order Monday night.
The order also warns that attempted enforcement by states or private parties would represent an “encroachment on the powers of the Executive,” seemingly in an effort to head off potential lawsuits against the app.
When pressed over the national security concerns about ByteDance, Trump shied away from saying for sure if a divestiture deal would be hammered out.
“TikTok is worthless if I don’t approve it, it has to close, I learned that from the people that own it,” he told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office.
“If I do the deal, it may be worth a trillion dollars,” he said, adding later, “If i do the deal for the United States, I think we should get half. The U.S. should be entitled to get half of TikTok.”
He also downplayed the extent of the threat from TikTok, saying the U.S. has “bigger problems.”
“Take a look at telephones that are made in China and all the other things that are made in China, military equipment made in China,” Trump added. “I think TikTok is not the biggest problem.”
The Supreme Court upheld the divest-or-ban law Friday, ruling it did not violate the First Amendment and teeing up a ban. In the wake of the court’s decision, the Biden administration said it did not plan to enforce the law and would instead leave implementation to the incoming Trump administration.
However, TikTok said later Friday that it planned to “go dark,” arguing the Biden administration did not provide “necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers.” The White House dismissed the company’s statement as a “stunt.”
The app stopped working for American users shortly before midnight Saturday and was removed from popular app stores.
The executive order acknowledges the “unfortunate timing” of the ban taking effect one day before Trump was sworn in, stating it “interferes with my ability to assess the national security and foreign policy implications” of the law before it took effect.
“This timing also interferes with my ability to negotiate a resolution to avoid an abrupt shutdown of the TikTok platform while addressing national security concerns,” Trump said.
Trump said Sunday he was asking companies “not to let TikTok stay dark” and announced plans to issue the executive order. The law allows the president to issue a 90-day extension if ByteDance is making progress toward a qualified divestiture.
TikTok came back online just after noon Sunday, thanking Trump for his assurances that the app’s service providers wouldn’t face penalties.
“It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship,” TikTok said in a statement posted to X. “We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”
Trump on Monday repeated he has a “warm spot” for the platform, while acknowledging he originally did not. The president was the one to first push for the ban during his first term.
“I went on TikTok and I won young people by a 36 percent meter and Republicans typically don’t do well with young people,” he said.
While the app is back up and running, it still faces an uncertain future. ByteDance is still expected to divest from TikTok in some shape or form and Trump did not give assurances a deal would definitely reach the finish line.
“I think we should have a joint venture with the people from Singapore, that’s one of many ideas,” he said Monday.
Updated at 8:48 p.m. EST.
