Trump 'most likely' to give TikTok 90-day reprieve, NBC says

Tony Czuczka, Bloomberg News on Jan 18, 2025

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WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said he will “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from a U.S. law that threatens to shut down the popular platform as soon as Sunday.

Trump said in an exclusive phone interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker that he’ll “probably announce it on Monday” — the day of his inauguration to a second term.

TikTok said on Friday that it would “go dark” in the U.S. on Sunday unless the Biden administration issues a clear statement to service providers about what course it should take. That followed a unanimous Supreme Court ruling that upheld a bipartisan law requiring TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent company, Bytedance Ltd. to sell the video-sharing app or be shut down for national security concerns.

“I think that would be, certainly, an option that we look at. The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate,” Trump said, according to NBC. “We have to look at it carefully. It’s a very big situation.”

Biden administration officials, who leave office on Monday, have indicated they’re unlikely to enforce the ban, throwing TikTok’s fate into Trump’s hands. That’s forcing leaders within the company and in Beijing to consider dwindling alternatives for keeping the app alive after President Joe Biden signed the divestiture bill in April.

ByteDance can agree to sell the app’s U.S. operations — a path the company has rejected — or wait to see if Trump makes good on his promise to orchestrate a solution. Options include stalling the ban or approving a deal that addresses the U.S. government’s national security concerns.

The platform was among the topics Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed during a pre-inauguration conversation on Friday, Trump officials said.

Finding a buyer for TikTok would be a challenge, not just because ByteDance has balked at the idea of selling but because of the expected price tag. Few companies or individuals could likely afford TikTok, which is estimated to be worth as much as $50 billion.

One possibility is a billionaire acquirer, such as Elon Musk — whom the Chinese government is already evaluating as a potential new owner — or a team of investors, like Frank McCourt and Kevin O’Leary, who have publicly trumpeted their desire to take control of the app.

TikTok could also strike a deal with an American tech giant like Oracle Corp. or Amazon.com Inc., both of which TikTok already does business with. Many of the other logical buyers, like Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, are already mired in antitrust litigation, making them unlikely suitors.

Chief Executive Officer Shou Chew posted a video to the service a few hours after the Supreme Court ruling. “I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States,” he said. “This is a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship.”