Trump thinks he can broker a deal to keep TikTok running

After the end of a chaotic weekend, TikTok received a 75-day lifeline from the new U.S. president. Donald Trump signed an executive order to give TikTok parent ByteDance some time to negotiate a permanent deal.

On Friday, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law that forces either a ban or divestiture of TikTok, the app’s fate seemed to be sealed. As its rivals swooped in to divvy up the spoils, TikTok went dark for U.S. users on Saturday.

That downtime turned out to be short-lived. TikTok welcomed its U.S. community back onto the app on Sunday, citing Trump’s 75-day reprieve as the reason for the turnaround.

Trump’s executive order doesn’t overturn the divest-or-ban law, even though the new president has promised to take that action during his second term. Instead, Trump is ordering the attorney general to avoid enforcing the law while his administration negotiates with TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company.

During a press conference, Trump said he had a change of heart about TikTok (which he tried to ban during his first term) “because I got to use it.” He is seeking a deal that would split ownership of the app 50-50 between “the United States” and China. To Trump, if ByteDance were to turn down that offer, it would be “somewhat of a hostile act.”

Previously, Chinese officials had indicated that they would oppose any efforts to divest TikTok in response to the new U.S. law. But as TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago and attended his inauguration, the Chinese Foreign Ministry suggested that it would put power back in ByteDance’s hands.

Instead of blocking a deal, China may let TikTok’s owner come to its own terms. That deference would please Trump, but users on Chinese social media platforms wouldn’t be as thrilled. On Weibo, posts called Trump’s offer “robbery” and suggested that they should be able to own half of American corporations like Nvidia.

Even with all that animosity, the first hours of Trump’s second term showed Americans that they can hold out some hope for the permanent reinstatement of TikTok. The app’s U.S.-backed co-owner could be MrBeast or Elon Musk, but there’s still a chance that ByteDance will retain control of its most famous property.