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Trump has not banned TikTok amid deadlock in US-China tariff talks. Photo: Bloomberg . |
According to WSJ sources, US President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order to continue to extend operations with TikTok, in case parent company ByteDance has not reached an agreement to divest in the US.
If the information is accurate, this is the third time Mr. Trump has extended TikTok's license since taking office in January. The latest extension will end on June 19, which could result in the platform being banned if it fails to find a new investor in the US.
The White House is said to have facilitated an investor to take ownership of TikTok in the US. However, the plan hit a snag when Mr. Trump announced tariffs on goods imported from China in early April.
Tariff negotiations between the US and China remain deadlocked, and a TikTok deal is not a priority until the US resolves tensions with China, according to an administration official.
On April 4, Mr. Trump signed an executive order allowing TikTok to operate in the United States for another 75 days. This was the second time the president used executive power to temporarily delay the application of a law signed by the Joe Biden administration in April 2024, requiring ByteDance to separate from TikTok in the United States due to national security concerns.
US officials believe that ByteDance may be collecting data from TikTok users in the US and sending it to China, influencing public opinion. For its part, ByteDance has affirmed that it has never received instructions from the Chinese government to provide data, and would refuse if requested.
Trump, who has been a frequent critic of TikTok since his first term, sees it as an important tool to reach young voters in the US. “I want to save TikTok. I mean, TikTok has been very good to me,” the US president told reporters.
Under the proposal from the US government, several investors including cloud computing company Oracle, private equity firms Blackstone, Silver Lake, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Technologies, would hold TikTok shares in the US. According to internal sources, ByteDance will retain less than 20% of the shares in the new company.
Administration officials reportedly supported the plan. But after Mr. Trump announced the reciprocal tariffs, ByteDance representatives insisted that they would not accept any deal until the US and China began negotiations.
At the time, ByteDance said there were still “significant issues to resolve,” stressing that any deal would need to comply with Chinese law.
In a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on June 5, Mr. Trump said the two sides agreed to hold a new round of trade negotiations. The Chinese side was led by Vice Premier He Lifeng, while the US side included Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
TikTok was not mentioned in the call, according to a US official. On June 6, Mr. Trump said that the US delegation would meet with Chinese representatives on June 9 in London (UK).
Source: https://znews.vn/ong-trump-lai-muon-cuu-tiktok-post1558970.html
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