President-elect Donald Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in a phone interview Saturday that he will “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from a potential ban in the U.S. after he takes office Monday.
Trump said he hadn’t made a final decision but was considering a 90-day extension of the Sunday deadline for TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell to a non-Chinese-buyer or face a U.S. ban.
“I think that would be, certainly, an option that we look at. The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate. You know, it’s appropriate. We have to look at it carefully. It’s a very big situation,” Trump said in the phone interview.
“If I decide to do that, I’ll probably announce it on Monday,” he said.
A 90-day extension is explicitly allowed for in a bipartisan law made last year under specific conditions. But an extension Monday may not be enough to avoid the app going dark for at least a day, because the current deadline for compliance is Sunday.
The fate of TikTok is one of the subjects that has consumed the final days of the Biden administration, and many of the app’s millions of U.S. users are eagerly awaiting a resolution.
The Biden administration has repeatedly said that it does not plan to enforce the law, punting that responsibility to Trump, but TikTok said Friday that the White House’s assurances may not be enough to prevent the app from shutting down. TikTok has said it plans to “go dark” Sunday unless it receives greater “clarity and assurance” about potential legal fallout including against third-party service providers.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called TikTok’s plans to go dark “a stunt” in a statement Saturday morning.
“We have seen the most recent statement from TikTok. It is a stunt, and we see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump Administration takes office on Monday,” she said.
“We have laid out our position clearly and straightforwardly: actions to implement this law will fall to the next administration. So TikTok and other companies should take up any concerns with them,” she said.
President Joe Biden signed the law last April requiring the app’s Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell it to a non-Chinese-buyer or face a nationwide prohibition in the United States, but in recent days his aides have been looking for ways to keep TikTok available when that law takes effect Sunday.
Under the law, the president can grant a one-time extension of 90 days if he certifies to Congress that three things are true: There’s a path to divestiture, there’s “significant progress” toward executing it and “there are in place the relevant binding legal agreements to enable execution of such qualified divestiture during the period of such extension.”
No such binding legal agreements have been made public. If a last-minute buyer came forward, they would likely need to spend tens of billions of dollars for TikTok’s U.S. operations.
Trump did not say whether he was aware of any recent progress toward a sale.
Trump’s support for TikTok is a sharp reversal from his stance during his first term, when Trump signed executive orders to ban not only TikTok but also the Chinese messaging app WeChat. Trump’s attempt then was blocked by the courts. His reversal came after he met briefly with one of the app’s billionaire American investors last year.
Lawmakers who have supported a sale or ban say some action is necessary because of ByteDance’s ties to the Chinese government, which they say shouldn’t have control of a major media property that could be used for propaganda purposes. They also cite the app’s collection of personal data from American citizens.
TikTok’s fans have protested the possible sale or ban, including by downloading other Chinese apps such as RedNote despite potential security concerns about those apps, too.
On Friday, the Supreme Court upheld the law, rejecting the app’s free speech arguments in an unsigned opinion with no dissents.
Ahead of the Supreme Court’s ruling, Trump asked the court to hit pause on the law, asking for some time for his administration to work to find alternative solutions to banning the app.
In the wake of the ruling Friday, Trump wrote on TruthSocial, “The Supreme Court decision was expected, and everyone must respect it. My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!”
In the past, he’s signaled his support for letting the app remain available to users in the U.S., citing the high number of views his TikTok accounts receive.
TikTok CEO Shou Chew is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration ceremony Monday, along with other tech executives.
On Friday, TikTok’s future remained uncertain, as Chew thanked Trump for his efforts to keep the app running in the U.S.
Even before the Supreme Court’s ruling, Biden administration officials signaled that they would not enforce the law on Sunday, the last day of Biden’s term.
“Given the sheer fact of timing, this Administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement after the ruling.
“The statements issued today by both the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million Americans,” TikTok said in a post on X.
“Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19,” the statement added.
