President Donald Trump on Friday dismissed national security and privacy concerns surrounding TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, as “highly overrated,” while confirming he will once again extend the deadline for the popular video-sharing platform to find a U.S. buyer.
Congress had earlier approved a law banning TikTok unless ByteDance sold its controlling stake, citing fears that the Chinese government could access the data of millions of American users. The Supreme Court upheld the legislation, setting the stage for what many expected would be a permanent ban. Yet since returning to office, Trump has granted three extensions — the latest deadline now set for September 17.
“We’re gonna watch the security concerns,” Trump told reporters, but quickly added, “We have buyers, American buyers. Until the complexity of things work out, we just extend a little bit longer.”
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The first extension came on January 20, Trump’s first day back in office, after TikTok briefly went dark when the Supreme Court-backed ban initially took effect. A second extension followed in April, when a proposed deal to spin off TikTok into a new U.S.-owned company collapsed after Beijing balked in response to Trump’s new tariff announcements.
The president’s remarks came the same week the White House launched its own official TikTok account — a move that underlined the platform’s entrenched popularity in American culture.
“I used TikTok in the campaign,” Trump said. “I’m a fan of TikTok. My kids like TikTok. Young people love TikTok. If we could keep it going.”
The extensions have cast growing doubt on whether TikTok will ever actually be banned in the United States. While Trump’s decision has faced scrutiny in policy circles, his executive orders to keep the app alive have so far avoided the legal battles that have dogged many of his other directives.
Under the divest-or-ban statute, Congress set a finite compliance window for ByteDance to sell TikTok to a U.S. buyer. While the law gives the executive branch latitude to manage implementation and, in limited circumstances, to delay enforcement to facilitate an orderly sale or mitigation measures, there is legal concern about the legality of further extension. Repeated delays risk being portrayed as effectively nullifying Congress’s mandate if they run beyond the statute’s allowances or stated purpose.
If another extension pushes the timeline materially past statutory limits without concrete sale progress, it could be seen as exceeding executive authority or frustrating congressional intent; though the Justice Department would likely argue the delays fall within lawful enforcement discretion to protect national security while a divestiture is negotiated.
However, public opinion on TikTok remains sharply divided. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that support for a ban has declined, with only about one-third of Americans in favor, compared with 50 percent in March 2023. Another third said they opposed a ban, while the remainder expressed uncertainty.
Among those who favor a ban, nearly 8 in 10 cited concerns over user data security and the risk of Chinese government access. Yet the declining support reflects TikTok’s enduring popularity, particularly among younger Americans, and the difficulty of disentangling a social platform that has become deeply embedded in U.S. political, cultural, and business life.
The battle over TikTok has become one of the most symbolic confrontations in the broader tech and geopolitical struggle between Washington and Beijing. What once seemed like an imminent ban is now being reshaped by Trump’s own political calculation, the app’s massive user base, and China’s resistance to selling one of its most successful global tech exports.