Extension for TikTok sale winding down, but deadline may not matter: analysts

The final chapter of the TikTok divest-or-ban saga is set to unfold before Saturday, when the extension US President Donald Trump gave the Chinese-owned platform to secure an American buyer expires.

But with Trump apparently holding the popular short-video app as a bargaining chip for a trade negotiation with Beijing, analysts say the deadline may not matter.

Calling himself a “very flexible person” as he spoke to reporters on Monday, Trump said a potential TikTok deal or extension was not “tied” to tariffs, but that “it could be”.

“I’ve used tariffs for lots of different reasons, but I could see, you know, one point in tariffs with China, big country, would be probably worth more than all of TikTok. As valuable as TikTok is, it’s mixed up,” he said.

Based on the premise that TikTok posed a national security threat because the data it stores on its more than 170 million American users could be transmitted to Beijing, Congress last year passed – and then-President Joe Biden approved – a law that forced ByteDance either to sell the app or face its ban in the US.

After the Supreme Court upheld the law, the deadline for a sale – January 19, a day before Trump returned to power – passed and TikTok briefly shut down.

The platform resumed operations after Trump, who boasts over 15 million TikTok followers, vowed not to enforce the ban.