In a saga that has stretched well beyond the typical lifespan of a viral TikTok trend, the fate of the popular video-sharing app in the United States remains uncertain. Despite a bipartisan law passed by Congress more than 500 days ago mandating that ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based parent company, divest its U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban, President Donald Trump has repeatedly delayed enforcement, citing both diplomatic and political considerations. As of September 16, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order—his fourth—to extend the pause on enforcing the law until at least December 16, 2025, according to CBS News and the Associated Press.
This drawn-out dance between Washington and Beijing has left TikTok’s 170 million American users in limbo, not to mention the app’s executives and potential American buyers. The law, which took effect the day before Trump’s second inauguration in January 2021, was designed to address national security concerns voiced by lawmakers and intelligence officials. For years, they have warned that TikTok could be used by the Chinese government to spy on Americans, harvest their data, or disseminate propaganda. Yet, the app continues to be available on U.S. app stores and web-hosting services, a situation that has prompted both criticism and confusion.
“We have American buyers,” President Trump told reporters last month, teasing a deal that he said was “on the verge.” Still, as Bloomberg notes, despite repeated promises of imminent agreements, no concrete details about a sale have emerged. In June, Trump told Fox News, “I’ll tell you in about two weeks” when pressed for the buyer’s identity. Eleven weeks later, the mystery remains unsolved.
According to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, U.S. and Chinese negotiators have agreed on a path forward to resolve the TikTok ownership dispute. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to speak on September 19 to “firm everything up,” as Trump put it. The Chinese Embassy in Washington, for its part, issued a statement on September 16 asserting that China will “firmly defend its national interests, the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies, and will carry out technology export approvals according to relevant laws and regulations.” The embassy added that the government “fully respects the will of enterprises and supports them in conducting business negotiations on an equal footing in accordance with market principles.”
Despite these diplomatic overtures, the core of the national security dispute remains unresolved. As Bloomberg points out, the “black box” of TikTok’s all-important algorithm is still controlled by ByteDance, which is a major sticking point for U.S. lawmakers. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick warned in late July that “we can’t have Chinese control and have something on 100 million American phones.” He added that while China or ByteDance “can have a little piece,” Americans would need to control the algorithm and “own the technology.”
The Supreme Court affirmed the law’s constitutionality 244 days ago, but President Trump has continued to delay its enforcement. The Associated Press reports that this is the fourth such extension, with each new deadline accompanied by assurances from the White House that a deal is just around the corner. Yet, as MSNBC observes, “Trump keeps declaring his refusal to enforce federal law.” The administration’s rationale, articulated by Attorney General Pam Bondi in letters to tech companies, is that an abrupt shutdown of TikTok would “interfere with the execution of the president’s constitutional duties to take care of the national security and foreign affairs of the United States.” Bondi also stated that the Justice Department is “irrevocably relinquishing” any legal claims against companies like Apple and Google for continuing to make TikTok available, assuring them they would not incur liability.
Legal experts, however, are skeptical. Alan Rozenshtein, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, told CBS News that the TikTok law is “completely unambiguous,” and that there is “no room to argue that the law doesn’t say what it says and there’s also no resource constraint.” Zachary Price, a professor at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, added, “Whatever your view of prosecutorial discretion, it does not give the president the power to say that something prohibited by statute is actually lawful.” Anupam Chander, a law professor at Georgetown University, called the administration’s claims “an excessive assertion of presidential power.”
Yet Chander also suggested that by not enforcing the law, Trump may be increasing the odds of a sale. “It’s a lot harder to sell a dead horse than a live horse,” Chander said. “If you force it to shut down and then hope in six months that you might engineer a sale — at that point, the value might have diminished so much that there’s very little reason, very little economic incentive for ByteDance to sell at all.”
The political calculus behind Trump’s repeated delays is not lost on observers. During his first term, Trump was a vocal critic of TikTok, attempting to ban the app outright—a move that ultimately failed in court. In his second term, however, Trump has praised TikTok for helping him win the support of young voters. The White House even launched its own TikTok account recently, a move that has raised eyebrows given that, under the law, the app should not legally exist in the U.S.
Lawmakers have expressed frustration with the administration’s approach. “The courts have been really clear on this,” Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said in June. “I think we ought to enforce the law.” Representative Dan Newhouse of Washington echoed this sentiment, stating, “The law is clear” and calling for it to be “implemented as written.” However, as MSNBC notes, the intensity of congressional pushback has been relatively muted compared to the initial alarms sounded over TikTok’s potential security risks.
Meanwhile, TikTok’s lawyer argued before the Supreme Court that the app “would be a fundamentally different platform” if forced to sever all ties with ByteDance, noting that rebuilding the algorithm would take years. In legal filings, TikTok warned that a complete ban on data sharing with ByteDance would mean American users could no longer access global content, and vice versa—potentially undermining the app’s appeal and utility for its vast user base.
With the latest deadline now set for December 16, 2025, the clock is ticking once again. Whether a deal will finally be reached, or if yet another extension will follow, remains to be seen. For now, TikTok’s future—and that of its millions of American users—hangs in the balance, caught between geopolitical brinkmanship, legal wrangling, and the unpredictable rhythms of both Washington and Beijing.
As the world watches, the TikTok saga continues to unfold, a testament to the complex intersection of technology, politics, and international relations in the digital age.
