The flow of time has sputtered to a halt. So if you thought it was a bad idea to shut down the TikTok app in the United States if ByteDance or the Chinese Communist Party refused to let it be sold to a U.S. buyer—despite whatever malign propagandistic and data-scavenging purposes the CCP may be accomplishing via the app—looks like you don’t have to worry.
Basic arithmetic
Divest-or-be-banned legislation had been signed into law by President Biden toward the end of his administration (if we assume that Biden did sign it and not his Autopen Team). But soon after his second inauguration, President Trump used an executive order to extend the deadline by 90 days, an order that was allowed to stand despite its inconsistency with the requirements for deferring the deadline spelled out in the legislation itself.
Then the president extended the extension. And now “Trump to sign order extending TikTok deadline another 90 days, White House says” (CBS News, June 17, 2025).
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday the president would sign the latest executive order this week delaying enforcement of the law for 90 days, marking the third delay in the law’s implementation since his inauguration in January.
“As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark. 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,” Leavitt said in a statement.
The orders have directed the Justice Department to not take action or impose penalties against companies like Apple and Google for failure to remove the widely popular video-sharing app from their platforms.
The current extension expires Thursday.
The administration will spend the new 90-day extension working on the deal. What deal?
And how can the American people “continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure” during the 270-day or 360-day or 450-day or 900-day period during which the deadline to make an actual, real, completed deal is being or will be extended?
The law’s delay
It has been suggested that the U.S.–China trade war killed or helped kill a deal supposedly impending in April 2025 to sell TikTok. But the Chinese government may not wish to permit the sale in any event. ByteDance said in April that “a deal had not been reached because there were still key issues to be resolved, and noted that any deal would be subject to the Chinese government’s approval.”
The Wire China reports that TikTok execs don’t seem particularly fazed by the prospect of any rumbles on the horizon.
“Cybersecurity expert Jim Lewis was walking through Washington earlier this month when he bumped into a senior executive at the wildly popular social media app TikTok. ‘I asked him, “How’s it going?” and he said, “Things are going great!” ’ Lewis says of their encounter one block from the White House grounds. ‘He was really happy. They don’t seem particularly fazed….’ ”
Also see:
The Federalist: “Why The ‘#StopWillow’ Movement on TikTok May Be a CCP Influence Campaign”
StoptheCCP.org: “TikTok Only Pretends to Hide Data on U.S. Users From ByteDance and China”
Heritage.org: “TikTok Generation: A CCP Official in Every Pocket”
