President Donald Trump said Friday that concerns over national security and privacy tied to TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance are “highly overrated” and confirmed he will continue extending the platform’s U.S. shutdown deadline until a buyer is secured.
Congress had approved a ban on TikTok unless ByteDance sold its controlling stake, but Trump has already extended the deadline three times during his second term, with the next extension set for Sept. 17. “We’re gonna watch the security concerns,” Trump told reporters. “We have buyers, American-buyers. Until the complexity of things work out, we just extend a little bit longer.”
The first extension came via an executive order on Jan. 20, the president’s first day in office, after the platform briefly went dark following a national ban upheld by the Supreme Court. The second extension was in April, when a potential U.S.-owned spin-off fell through after China withdrew support following Trump’s tariff announcement.
Trump, who recently joined TikTok with a White House account, said he is a fan of the platform. “I used TikTok in the campaign. My kids like TikTok. Young people love TikTok. If we could keep it going,” he said.
Public opinion on TikTok remains divided. A recent Pew Research Center survey found about one-third of Americans support a ban, down from 50% in March 2023, while roughly one-third oppose it, and another third are unsure. Among supporters of a ban, around 80% cited concerns over user data security as a key factor.
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