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President Donald Trump plans to extend the June 19 deadline for TikTok in the U.S. if no deal is made for its parent company, ByteDance, to divest its American assets in the company.
Trump shared the decision during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday with Kristen Welker from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
“I’d like to see it done. I have a little sweet spot in my heart because, as you know, I won young people by 36 points. That’s a lot. No Republican ever won young people, and I won it by 36 points, and I focused on TikTok,” Trump stated.
“So perhaps I shouldn’t say this, but I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok. TikTok is — it’s very interesting, but it’ll be protected. It’ll be very strongly protected. But if it needs an extension, I would be willing to give it an extension, might not need it,” Trump continued.
The president also gave an update on the plans for a deal for U.S. investors to purchase the U.S. portion of TikTok.
“[We] actually have a deal. We have a group of purchasers, very substantial people. They’re going to pay a lot of money. It’s a good thing for us. It’s a good thing for China. It’s going to be, I think, very good,” he said.
“But because of the fact that I’ve essentially cut off China right now with the tariffs that are so high that they’re not going to be able to do much business with the United States. But if we make a deal with China I’m sure that’ll be a subject, and it’ll be a very easy subject to solve,” the president added.
The U.S. has an estimated 170 million monthly active TikTok users, making it the country with the largest audience using the app worldwide. The company brought in about $10 billion in U.S. revenue in 2024.
Worldwide, the app made between $20 and $26 billion in 2024, ranking as the fifth most used social network behind Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp.
