Why TikTok will likely get another lifeline as sell-or-ban deadline looms

Bipartisan critics of keeping TikTok operating in the US simply have too much other stuff on their plate to muster a fight should President Trump once again extend the deadline for the Chinese-owned app to divest in the US, On The Money has learned.That’s the word from sources close to the White House and key figures in Congress who have debated whether TikTok should go dark in a couple weeks over concerns it’s essentially spyware for the Chinese Communist Party in its quest for global domination. As On The Money reported on Tuesday, here are the scenarios of TikTok’s short-term fate: A Wall Street banker involved in the deal to sell the app to US investors said Trump could be persuaded to let TikTok “go dark” and disappear from app stores on June 19 if he believes it will give him a strategic advantage in the complex and at times acrimonious trade deal negotiations with the Chinese.But more likely is that he throws TikTok yet another lifeline, sources say.  Trump really loves the app (he thinks it helped get him elected in 2024 no matter how much it’s spying on us).He is poised to extend the TikTok ban deadline – for the third time – as the White House and China prepare to hold trade talks, which are in their nascent stages with Trump speaking directly with China President Xi Jinping by phone on Thursday.Plus, there might not be that much pushback as there was in the past.

Another extension could happen without much of a fuss because Congress – including its bipartisan TikTok haters – is probably too distracted with the Big Beautiful Bill, pruning excesses amid criticism from none-other-than Elon Musk, extending the Trump 1 tax cuts and the China-US trade talks to really lose that much sleep if Trump does extend, they say.“There’s an 80% probability it gets a 75-day extension and stays lit up,” said one Wall Street executive who is part of the on-going Trump-led negotiation to save TikTok from disappearing through a deal that will tra...