President Trump on Thursday officially issued his third executive order delaying enforcement of a law that effectively bans TikTok in the U.S. unless its Chinese parent company sells a controlling stake to non-Chinese parties. Democrats said Trump’s actions do not have any legal basis.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia), vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement after the White House said the president would delay enforcing the TikTok divest-or-ban law: “Once again, the Trump administration is flouting the law and ignoring its own national security findings about the risks posed by a PRC-controlled TikTok,” referring to the People’s Republic of China.
Warner continued, “An executive order can’t sidestep the law, but that’s exactly what the president is trying to do.”
Republicans aren’t pleased with Trump’s continuing delays on the TikTok law, either. “That’s not my favorite thing,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) told Axios about Trump’s planned extension in a story published Thursday. “I’m fine with him trying to sell it, that’s fine, but I think at a certain point we’ve got to enforce this law.”
Trump on Thursday wrote on Truth Social, “I’ve just signed the Executive Order extending the Deadline for the TikTok closing for 90 days (September 17, 2025). Thank you for your attention to this matter!” The White House had previously said he would issue such an order.
Trump, in his first administration, tried unsuccessfully to ban TikTok unless its ownership was transferred to U.S. companies. But after the 2024 election Trump said “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” because “there are those who say” the app helped drive support for him among young voters. The Trump administration has been trying to hammer out a deal that would restructure TikTok U.S.’s operations in a way that would comply with the law — while also being an arrangement the Chinese government would approve.
On Thursday, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-California) criticized Trump’s latest delay on the TikTok ban, writing in a post on X, “The law allows only one single extension, so Trump’s failure to enforce it is illegal.” However, in the same post, Sherman incorrectly claimed that “the Chinese owners of TikToK have announced they are buying ‘Trump Coins’ for $300 million,” which he alleged “is just a $300 million bribe that goes right into his pocket.” The TikTok Policy account on X called out Sherman’s claim as “patently false and irresponsible.” According to a New York Times story published May 13, a company called GD Culture Group, a “struggling technology company that has ties to China and relies on TikTok,” announced that it secured funding “to buy as much as $300 million of $TRUMP, the so-called memecoin marketed by President Trump.”
On a post Thursday on X from @TrumpWarRoom (described as “The official War Room account of President Donald J. Trump’s political operation”) about Trump’s latest deferment of enforcing the ban, users added a Community Note (a crowdsourced fact-checking feature of X) pointing out that the president “has no legal authority to extend the deadline another 90 days.” The note cites the Supreme Court’s ruling in TikTok Inc. v. Garland, which upheld the law and says: “The Act permits the President to grant a one-time extension of no more than 90 days with respect to the prohibitions’ 270-day effective date.”
Under a U.S. law that went into effect Jan. 19, 2025, it is illegal for American companies to host or distribute TikTok in the country as long as it remains controlled by China-based ByteDance. The legislation passed last year with overwhelming bipartisan support, on fears that the popular video entertainment app’s ties to China‘s communist regime make it a national security risk.
TikTok, in a statement Thursday, said, “We are grateful for President Trump’s leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users and 7.5 million U.S. businesses that rely on the platform as we continue to work with Vice President Vance’s Office.”
Warner, in advocating for passage of the TikTok divest-or-ban bill in the Senate in April 2024, said the legislation “goes a long way towards safeguarding our democratic systems from covert foreign influence.” He said Chinese companies like ByteDance “don’t owe their obligation to their customers, or their shareholders, but they owe it to the PRC government.”
At a congressional hearing in March 2023, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said, “ByteDance is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government,” and said there is an “inaccurate belief that TikTok’s corporate structure makes it beholden to the Chinese government or that it shares information about U.S. users with the Chinese government. This is emphatically untrue.” ByteDance has said 60% of its ownership is represented by “global institutional investors” including BlackRock, General Atlantic and Susquehanna, with 20% owned by its Chinese founders and 20% by employees including those in the U.S.
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