Trump Giving TikTok Extra Time to Find a Buyer

TikTok owner ByteDance has less than two days to find a U.S. buyer for the platform.

However, President Donald Trump says he is likely to give the Chinese tech conglomerate more time to forge a deal, Reuters reported Tuesday (June 17).

Trump had said last month that he would extend the June 19 deadline, as TikTok had helped him connect with younger voters in the last election. He restated that pledge Tuesday in comments to reporters on Air Force One, Reuters said.

The U.S government — under then-President Joe Biden — signed a law last year requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok. The law was sparked by national security concerns relating to ByteDance’s Chinese ownership.

The government had given ByteDance until Jan. 19 of this year to find a buyer. When that deadline arrived with no buyer in place, TikTok briefly shut down, until Trump — on the cusp of returning to office — said he would give the company more time.

The new deadline was in April. Trump has said that Beijing’s objections to the White House’s tariffs on Chinese imports derailed a possible deal just before it was about to be signed, with the U.S. setting a new deadline of June 19.

Trump was initially in favor of banning TikTok — it was something he lobbied for during his first term — but reversed his position while on the campaign trail last year, advocating for a solution even after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against ByteDance’s attempt to try to halt the ban.

Several potential bidders have emerged for TikTok since the year began, including software company Oracle. The White House had also been engaged in a deal that would have given new outside investors half of TikTok’s U.S. business in a unit that would be spun off from ByteDance. ByteDance’s existing U.S. investors would also own around 30% of the business, paring ByteDance’s stake down to a little less than 20%.

Other reported bidders include Amazon, which — as PYMNTS wrote earlier this year — would give the eCommerce giant a strong tool for guiding shopper behavior, especially among younger consumers.

“Moreover, such an acquisition could allow Amazon to integrate TikTok’s influential advertising ecosystem into its own retail infrastructure, providing a seamless link between content discovery and direct purchasing,” the report added.

“While the deal remains speculative, it highlights Amazon’s willingness to pursue unconventional strategies to remain at the forefront of consumer engagement.”