Trump Extends TikTok Deadline to Dec. 16 After U.S.-China Framework Deal
Fourth extension keeps China-associated app operating in U.S. while officials negotiate a transfer of U.S. operations to American ownership
President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order formally extending the deadline for TikTok to remain available in the United States until Dec. 16, giving negotiators more time to complete a framework agreement reached with Chinese officials over the weekend.
The extension is the fourth time Trump has used executive authority to postpone the congressional deadline that required ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based parent company, to sell its U.S. operations or face a ban. The original statutory deadline was Jan. 19, the day before Trump’s second inauguration. Trump said the extra time followed a "framework" deal announced Monday after talks between U.S. and Chinese government representatives.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng were among officials who met in Madrid and concluded talks Monday that produced what Bessent described as a framework intended to transfer TikTok’s U.S. operations to American ownership. Bessent told reporters the goal was to achieve U.S. ownership of the assets that operate the app in America but declined to discuss the details of the arrangement.
Li Chenggang, China’s international trade representative, said the sides reached a “basic framework consensus” to cooperatively resolve TikTok-related issues, reduce investment barriers and promote economic and trade cooperation. White House officials have not released the text of the framework or outlined the mechanisms lawmakers will require to address national security concerns.
Trump, who has said companies are interested in buying TikTok’s U.S. operations, told reporters he would discuss the matter with Chinese President Xi Jinping later in the week. He said he would soon announce potential suitors and that he did not want to see the app’s value “thrown out the window.” The administration has previously cited the app’s data collection as a potential security risk that could give the Chinese government access to Americans’ information.
The law mandating the sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations was rooted in those national security concerns. Lawmakers and administration officials have argued that ByteDance’s links to China raise the risk of user data being accessed by the Chinese state. Critics of a ban or forced sale have argued that technological and commercial solutions, such as changes to data handling and governance, could mitigate risks without removing the app from the U.S. market.
Syracuse University political science professor Dimitar Gueorguiev cautioned that a deal to preserve TikTok under U.S. ownership might deliver benefits to national security while offering limited commercial upside. “The U.S.–China deal on TikTok may look like a breakthrough, but it risks being a Pyrrhic victory,” he said, arguing that TikTok’s algorithm has lost some of its mystique amid copycat products and shifting user attention. He said a U.S. buyer would be purchasing market share more than transformative technology.
U.S. officials said the extension to Dec. 16 is intended to give negotiators time to work out the legal and operational steps necessary to effect a sale or other change in control that would satisfy Congress and national security reviewers. The administration has not specified whether the framework envisions a full divestiture, a licensing arrangement, oversight mechanisms, or technical controls to isolate U.S. user data.
The move keeps the popular short-form video app operating in the United States during a period of complex negotiations between two governments that remain at odds on trade, technology and security. Whether a deal will be completed by the new deadline, and whether it will survive legal and congressional scrutiny, remains uncertain.