Third Illegal Extension for TikTok, No One Challenges Trump

Donald Trump will once again extend the deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok , as anticipated earlier this month. In the next few hours, he will sign the third illegal executive order , but no one has the courage to challenge the President. US companies that allow access to the social network still risk heavy sanctions.

Three Illegal Executive Orders

The law passed last year by Congress (Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act) required TikTok to be sold by January 19, 2025, because the social network would pose a threat to national security. Donald Trump had previously said that a ban would give Facebook more power. During his election campaign, he used TikTok to rally votes among young people, which explains why he wants to keep the Chinese platform online.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt confirmed the new extension:

President Trump will sign an additional executive order this week to keep TikTok up and running. As he has stated repeatedly, President Trump does not want TikTok to go down. This extension will last 90 days, during which the administration will work to ensure the deal is closed so the American people can continue to use TikTok with confidence that their data is safe and secure.

These promises have already been made twice before, when Trump signed executive orders on January 20 and April 4. Despite a possible agreement in early April , the sale did not happen. In the meantime, a trade war between the United States and China has also begun, with the application of reciprocal tariffs.

Trump has once again declared that the deal is close. For the third time he will therefore sign an illegal executive order . The President cannot override a law passed by Congress. Only with another law can the deadline for the sale of TikTok be changed. Of course, almost no one has the courage to challenge Trump, except for some Democratic politicians (minority in Congress).

The Department of Justice has assured that it will not apply the penalty provided by the law. Apple and Google can therefore keep the TikTok app on their respective stores, while Oracle and Akamai can provide the cloud infrastructure. However, a judge could decide that Trump's executive orders are illegal. Since the statute of limitations is five years, a future administration (other than the current one) could ask for the payment of the fine (up to 850 billion dollars ).