Trump Open To Extending TikTok Deadline, Says He Has 'Warm Spot' For The App

On Friday, President Donald Trump said he would consider pushing back the June 19 deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok's U.S. operations if a deal is not finalized in time. This marks the third time he's granted a reprieve to the short video app used by over 170 million Americans.

What Happened: In an interview with NBC News’ Meet the Press, Trump said, "I'd like to see it done."

"Perhaps I shouldn’t say this, but I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok," he stated, adding, "TikTok is, it’s very interesting, but it’ll be protected. It will be very strongly protected, but if it needs an extension, I would be willing to give it an extension. It might not need it."

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Why It's Important: The law, passed under his second administration, required China-based ByteDance to divest TikTok's U.S. assets by Jan. 19 or face a nationwide ban.

Trump, who returned to office on Jan. 20, opted not to enforce it and instead issued extensions — first to April, then again to June 19. During his first term, Trump wanted to ban TikTok, citing national security concerns over its ownership by China-based ByteDance.

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A deal had been underway to spin off TikTok's U.S. operations into a company controlled by American investors, but those efforts stalled after China signaled it would not approve the arrangement.

The freeze followed Trump's announcement of sweeping 145% tariffs on some Chinese goods, which further complicated U.S.-China negotiations.

In April, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN unexpectedly submitted a last-minute bid to acquire all of TikTok. Meanwhile, other major players like Oracle Corp. ORCL and Blackstone Inc. BX are actively exploring alternative strategies to restructure TikTok's U.S. operations.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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