President Donald Trump is downplaying the risks tied to TikTok, dismissing the national security debate as “highly overrated” and signaling once again that he’s in no rush to enforce a ban on the app. Instead, he says he will continue granting extensions until a U.S. buyer takes over the platform.
Congress previously authorized a nationwide ban unless ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, gave up its controlling stake. But Trump has repeatedly pushed back the enforcement date, three times since returning to office, with the next deadline looming on September 17.
“We’re gonna watch the security concerns,” Trump told reporters on Friday, before adding, “We have buyers, American-buyers,” and “until the complexity of things work out, we just extend a little bit longer.”
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The pattern began on January 20, when Trump issued an executive order delaying the ban on his first day back in the White House, after TikTok briefly went dark under a measure approved by Congress and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. A second extension came in April, during talks to create a new U.S.-controlled company. That deal collapsed after China withdrew following Trump’s fresh tariff announcement.
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This week, the White House itself joined TikTok, launching an official account despite the ongoing security debate. Trump, however, appeared unfazed.
“I used TikTok in the campaign,” he said. “I’m a fan of TikTok. My kids like TikTok. Young people love TikTok. If we could keep it going.”
For now, the app’s fate seems less threatened than before. Unlike other Trump executive orders that quickly ran into legal challenges, the TikTok extensions have stood untested in court.
Public opinion has also shifted. A new Pew Research Center survey shows just one-third of Americans support banning the app, compared to half of respondents in March 2023. Roughly a third oppose a ban, while the rest remain undecided. Among those backing restrictions, about 8 in 10 cite user data security as their top concern.
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