Trump delays TikTok ban again: What to know

TikTok ban delayed, President Trump signs off on another extension

U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to extend the deadline for the sale of the popular social media app TikTok. It is the third extension since Trump took office in January. On Thursday, Trump posted a screen shot of the order via Truth Social with a caption that read, "I've just signed the Executive Order extending the Deadline for the TikTok closing for 90 days (September 17,2025). Thank your for your attention to this matter!" This comes as national security concerns persist within the administration over potential Chinese government access to U.S. user data. TikTok is owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance.

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to keep TikTok running in the U.S. for another 90 days to give his administration more time to find an approved buyer and broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership.

It is the third time Trump has extended the deadline.

Trump extends deadline for TikTok ban 

What they're saying:

"I’ve just signed the Executive Order extending the Deadline for the TikTok closing for 90 days (September 17, 2025)," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. "Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, "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."

TikTok also praised Trump for signing an extension Thursday.

"We are grateful for President Trump’s leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users and 7.5 million U.S. businesses that rely on the platform as we continue to work with Vice President Vance’s Office," the company said in a statement.

The backstory:

ByteDance and TikTok launched a legal challenge against the federal law, which was passed with bipartisan support in Congress and signed by then-President Joe Biden. In January, the two companies lost their case at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump's first extension was through an executive order in January, on his first day in office. The platform went dark briefly when a national ban, approved by Congress and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, took effect. 

The second was in April when White House officials believed they were nearing a deal to spin off TikTok into a new company with U.S. ownership that fell apart after China backed out following Trump’s tariff announcement. At the time, Vice President JD Vance said that he was hopeful a deal to keep TikTok operating in the U.S. would be wrapped up by the early April deadline.

What we don't know:

It is not clear how many times Trump can, or will, keep extending the ban as the government continues to try to negotiate a deal for TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance. 

While there is no clear legal basis for the extensions, so far there have been no legal challenges to fight them.

FILE: Photo illustration of TikTok logo is seen displayed on a smartphone screen. (Credit: Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

What's next:

For now, TikTok continues to function for its 170 million users in the U.S., and tech giants Apple, Google and Oracle were persuaded to continue to offer and support the app, on the promise that Trump’s Justice Department would not use the law to seek potentially steep fines against them.

Trump has amassed more than 15 million followers on TikTok since he joined last year, and he has credited the platform with helping him gain traction among young voters. He said in January that he had a "warm spot for TikTok."

Number of adults using TikTok for news continues to grow

Dig deeper:

A recent Pew Research Center survey found that about one-third of Americans said they supported a TikTok ban, down from 50% in March 2023. Roughly one-third said they would oppose a ban, and a similar percentage said they weren’t sure.

Among those who said they supported banning the social media platform, about 8 in 10 cited concerns over users’ data security being at risk as a major factor in their decision, according to the report.

Another survey from the center found that 17% of adults regularly get news from TikTok.

That number has grown fivefold over the years, with just 3% of adults saying in 2020 that TikTok was a source of news for them. 

RELATED: More Americans are regularly getting news on TikTok, Pew Research finds

When looking at TikTok users specifically, around half (52%) now say they regularly get news there, up from 43% in 2023 and 22% in 2020. 

X, formerly Twitter, still has the highest number of users who report regularly getting news on their site.