Donald Trump again extends the deadline to ban TikTok, on the eve of a possible deal

Through an executive order, President Donald Trump again extended the deadline to ban TikTok by three months, until Dec. 16, on the eve of a possible deal to sell the popular Chinese social network to a U.S. buyer.

According to the order, TikTok's parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, has three months in total to divest itself of the social network on national security grounds. Otherwise, it will face a ban in the United States.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that there was a framework for a deal to sell TikTok to a U.S. buyer, but that terms would be confirmed in the coming days, following a call scheduled for Friday between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Trump confirmed the information Tuesday. "We have a deal on TikTok; I've reached a deal with China. I'm going to speak to President Xi on Friday to confirm everything," the president told reporters at the White House.

According to various reports, the deal is similar to the one that was almost announced in April, when it was raised to reduce ByteDance's stake to less than 20% of the company. At that time, it also considered completely limiting the Chinese Communist Party's ability to access U.S. user data.

Tuesday's new extension is already the fourth granted by President Trump over the deadline set by the bipartisan law passed last year and endorsed by the Supreme Court, despite the legal text intended to prevent perpetual extensions by the White House.

The most belligerent anti-China congressmen expressed enthusiasm for signs of a possible deal but warned that they would subject it to exacting review to make sure it actually complies with the spirit of the law.

“The president’s trying to balance both the national security implications of it as well as the fact that it’s been such an important app for so many Americans,” Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) told Politico. “I’m hopeful that what comes out of this is something that actually divests the Chinese, which would be a great step forward.”