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President Donald Trump is expected to grant another extension on the deadline for TikTok’s U.S. assets to be sold or divested from its Chinese parent company ByteDance, according to a report over the weekend.
The current deadline, set for Wednesday, would mark the fourth extension of an original January cutoff established under a law passed by Congress, Reuters reported Sunday. Trump first pushed the deadline back to early April after taking office, then extended it to May, June and again to September.
Trump said last month that U.S. buyers had been lined up to acquire TikTok and signaled he might approve another extension.
On Sunday, he offered little clarity on the app’s future. “I may or may not, we’re negotiating TikTok right now. We may let it die, or we may, I don’t know, it depends, up to China. It doesn’t matter too much. I’d like to do it for the kids,” Trump told reporters.
TikTok, which has approximately 170 million users in the United States, has been a source of controversy amid U.S.-China tensions, raising concerns about data privacy and national security.
Also, on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met in Spain with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and senior trade negotiator Li Chenggang. The talks, which included a discussion of TikTok, are not expected to produce an agreement before Sept. 17, Reuters reported.
The news also comes weeks after the White House’s new TikTok account quickly gained traction, with its first video drawing more than 1.3 million views within 24 hours of its debut.
The account was unveiled in August with a video montage of President Donald Trump speaking to supporters, addressing rallies and accompanied by audio from a past speech.
“Every day, I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the people all across this nation. I am your voice!” Trump said in the clip, which was captioned, “America we are BACK. What’s up TikTok?”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration sees the platform as another outlet for promoting the president’s agenda.
“The Trump administration is committed to communicating the historic successes President Trump has delivered to the American people with as many audiences and platforms as possible,” Leavitt said in a statement.
She added, “We’re excited to build upon those successes and communicate in a way no other administration has before.”