TikTok deal deadline extended after China pulled out over tariffs: reports

Trump has heard an array of offers from U.S. businesses seeking to buy a share of the popular social media site, but China’s ByteDance has insisted the platform is not for sale.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said he is signing an executive order to keep TikTok running in the U.S. for another 75 days to give his administration more time to broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership.

The order was announced as White House officials believed they were nearing a deal for the app’s operations to be spun off into a new company based in the U.S. and owned and operated by a majority of American investors, with China’s ByteDance maintaining a minority position, according to a person familiar with the matter.

But Beijing hit the brakes on a deal Thursday after Trump announced wide-ranging tariffs around the globe, including against China. ByteDance representatives called the White House to indicate that China would no longer approve the deal until there could be negotiations about trade and tariffs, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive details of the negotiations.

The details of how the deal was paused over tariffs were confirmed by Reuters, which cited two sources familiar with the matter. NBC News also confirmed the reports, citing two sources, while CNN cited a single source.

Global News has not independently confirmed the reports. The White House and the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Congress had mandated that the platform be divested from China by Jan. 19 or barred in the U.S. on national security grounds, but Trump moved unilaterally to extend the deadline to this weekend, as he sought to negotiate an agreement to keep it running. Trump has recently entertained an array of offers from U.S. businesses seeking to buy a share of the popular social media site, but China’s ByteDance, which owns TikTok and its closely held algorithm, has publicly insisted the platform is not for sale.

But on Friday it became uncertain whether a tentative deal could be announced after the Chinese government’s reversal of its position complicated TikTok’s ability to send clear signals about the nature of the agreement that had been reached for fear of upsetting its negotiations with Chinese regulators.

Trump instead announced he was signing an executive order to extend a 75-day pause on the ban that was set to go into effect Saturday.