By David Shepardson and Katie Paul
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday seeking to delay for 75 days the enforcement of a ban on the short-form video maker TikTok that was set to expire on January 19.
While signing the order, Trump suggested that the United States government should own half of TikTok's business in the US in return to keep the app alive and warned that he could impose tariffs on China if Beijing failed to approve a US deal with TikTok.
The executive order capped 48 hours of legal and political maneuvering that left millions of US TikTokkers struggling for answers about the future of their app.
The drama began on Saturday when the short video app used by 170 million Americans was taken offline by users shortly before a law saying it must be sold by its Chinese owner ByteDance on national security grounds, or be banned, came into force on Sunday.
The next day Trump said he had plans to “Save TikTok”. Within hours, the company began restoring its service in the US, thanks to the soon-to-be President for providing assurances to TikTok and its business partners that they will not face heavy fines to keep the app running.
The app and website were live on Monday, but TikTok is still unavailable for download on the Apple (NASDAQ:) and Google app stores.
Trump's order, signed a few hours after his inauguration on Monday, echoes his previous promises and instructs the attorney general not to enforce the law to give his team time to “determine the appropriate course of action against TikTok.”
But the legality of Trump's executive order is unclear. The secession bill was passed by large majorities in Congress, signed by President Joe Biden, and upheld by a unanimous Supreme Court.
The law does not give Trump the authority to extend the deadline unless ByteDance has “binding agreements” to sell TikTok and it is not clear which agreements exist.
ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Representative Frank Pallone said Trump's order “departs from the national security legislation passed by a large bipartisan majority in Congress.”
PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIPS WITH CHINA
The debate over TikTok comes at a critical time in US-China relations. Trump has said he intends to impose tariffs on China but also indicated that he hopes to communicate directly with the Chinese leader.
While signing the executive order on Monday evening, Trump said he could “see” the US government taking a 50% stake in TikTok and as part of that share, the US could police the site.
Trump added that if the deal is not approved by China, “there is no value. So if we create that value, why don't we have the right to like half?” He said the company could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
The US has never shut down a major social media platform. A law passed last year gives the Trump administration the power to ban or require the sale of some Chinese apps.
Trump's retention of TikTok marks a change of pace in his first term in office. In 2020, he unsuccessfully tried to block the app — along with Tencent's WeChat — over concerns that the company was sharing information about Americans with the Chinese government.
Recently, Trump said he “has a warm place in my heart for TikTok,” crediting the app with helping him win over younger voters in the 2024 presidential election.
Later in 2020, Trump approved an agreement for a new ownership structure with Walmart (NYSE: ) and Oracle (NYSE: ) agreeing to take ownership shares in the new company.
Trump said the deal would include companies paying $5 billion into the American education fund as part of the deal. The deal ended.
It would be unprecedented for the US government to require shares in a large company to approve its continued use.
Trump's comments did not address whether ByteDance or other Chinese entities would be allowed to take over TikTok or whether the deal would address US national security concerns about US users' data.
The order directs the Department of Justice to issue letters to companies such as Apple, Alphabet (NASDAQ:) Google and Oracle that provide services to TikTok “stating that no violation of the law and no offense of any type of conduct occurred during the period described above.”
It's unclear whether Trump's order will be enough to convince Alphabet's Google and Apple to return the app to stores in the United States.
That announcement came as China announced for the first time that it would be open to a deal to keep TikTok operating in the US.
When asked about the return of the app and Trump's desire for an agreement, China's foreign ministry told a regular press briefing on Monday that it believes companies should “decide independently” about their operations and agreements.
It repeated similar comments Tuesday when asked about Trump's executive order.