Trump says he will ‘most likely’ give TikTok 90-day extension to avoid ban

President-elect Donald Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker in a phone interview Saturday that he will “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from a potential U.S. ban after he takes office on Monday.

Trump said he had not made a final decision but was considering extending Sunday by 90 days deadline for TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell to a non-Chinese buyer or face a US ban.

“I certainly think that would be an option that we’re looking at. The 90-day extension is something that will most likely be done because it’s appropriate. You know, it’s appropriate. We’re going to have to look at it carefully. It’s a very big situation,” Trump said in the phone interview.

“If I decide to do it, I’ll probably announce it on Monday,” he said.

A 90-day extension under special conditions is expressly allowed in the bipartisan law passed last year. But an extension on Monday may not be enough to avoid the app going dark for at least a day because the current deadline for compliance is Sunday.

TikTok’s fate is one of the topics that has consumed the final days of the Biden administration, and many of the app’s millions of American users are anxiously awaiting a resolution.

The Biden administration has repeatedly said it does not plan to enforce the law, handing that responsibility to Trump, but TikTok said Friday that the White House’s assurances may not be enough to prevent the app from shutting down. TikTok has said it plans to “go dark” on Sunday unless it receives greater “clarity and certainty” about potential legal fallout, including against third-party service providers.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called TikTok’s plans to go dark “a stunt” in a statement Saturday morning.

“We’ve seen the latest statement from TikTok. It’s a stunt and we see no reason for TikTok or any other company to take action in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday,” she said.

“We have made our position clear and straightforward: actions to implement this law will fall to the next administration. So TikTok and other companies should raise any concerns with them,” she said.

President Joe Biden signed the law into law last April. That would require the app’s Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell it to a non-Chinese buyer or face a nationwide ban in the US, but in recent days his aides have been looking for ways to keep TikTok available once it takes off effect Sunday.

Under the lawcan the president grant a one-time 90-day extension if he certifies to Congress that three things are true: There is a path to divestment, there is “significant progress” toward executing it, and “there are in place the appropriate binding legal agreements to enable the execution of such Qualified Divestiture during the period of such extension.”

No such binding legal agreements have been made public. If a buyer came forward at the last minute, they would probably need to tens of billions of dollars for TikTok’s US operations.

Trump did not say whether he was aware of any recent progress toward a sale.

Trump’s support for TikTok is a sharp reversal from his stance during his first term, when Trump signed orders to ban not only TikTok but also the Chinese messaging app WeChat. Trump’s attempt at the time was blocked by the courts. His turnaround came after he met briefly with one of the app’s billionaire American investors last year.

Lawmakers who have supported a sale or ban say some action is necessary because of ByteDance’s ties to the Chinese government, which they say should not have control over a major media property that could be used for propaganda purposes. They also cite the app’s collection of personal data from US citizens.

TikTok’s fans have protested the possible sale or ban, including by downloading other Chinese apps such as RedNote, despite potential security issues with those apps.

On Friday, the Supreme Court upheld the law and rejected the app’s free speech arguments in an unsigned opinion without dissent.

Ahead of the Supreme Court’s decision, Trump asked the court to pause the law and asked for some time for his administration to work on finding alternative solutions to banning the app.

In the wake of the ruling on Friday, Trump wrote about the Truth Social“The Supreme Court’s decision was expected and everyone must respect it. My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I need time to review the situation. Stay tuned!”

In the past, he has signaled his support for allowing the app to remain available to users in the US, citing the high number of views his TikTok accounts receive.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Monday, along with other tech executives.

On Friday, TikTok’s future remained uncertain as Chew thanked Trump for his efforts to keep the app running in the US

Even before the Supreme Court’s decision, Biden administration officials signaled they would not enforce the law on Sunday, the last day of Biden’s term in office.

“Given the sheer fact of timing, this administration recognizes that actions to implement the law must simply fall to the next administration, which takes office on Monday,” the White House’s Jean-Pierre said in a statement after the ruling.

“The statements issued today by both the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have not provided the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million Americans,” TikTok said in a post on X.

“Unless the Biden administration immediately issues a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical non-enforcement service providers, TikTok will unfortunately be forced to go dark on January 19,” the statement added.